


The Spitting Image of Their Fathers

by EgadBadDad



Category: Treasure Planet (2002)
Genre: F/M, Gen, The sequel that never was, with a few adjustments because writers have creative liberty thank you v much
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-03-04 21:36:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 34,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13373523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EgadBadDad/pseuds/EgadBadDad
Summary: Katherine Blake is gunning for the midshipman position that is awarded to the top student at the Royal Naval Academy. There's only one problem - a rule-breaking, unorthodox new arrival. Kate and Jim will find themselves thrust together in an adventure of a lifetime as they learn that their lineage does not define them. Inspired by the storyboard for Disney's Treasure Planet 2. (Cross-posted on FF.net because I AM AN OLD WOMAN.)





	1. In Which Katherine Blake Visits The Dean

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome! I used to write fanfiction a long time ago when I was a young little 17 year old freshman in college. (I think I've deleted my old stories hidden in fandoms [that are not TP from what I remember] because I couldn't find my old account or the stories that I wrote through Google.) I recently was very bored and ran across an old Treasure Planet fic that someone else wrote that I reread and remembered what fun this all was. (Hiding In Plain Sight by RomanyChic if you haven't read it before. It's still on this site and it's phenomenal.) That fic prompted me to rewatch TP and do some Google searching to find out that a sequel had been planned but scrapped because of the money loss. I thought it might be fun to try my hand at fanfiction again and write the sequel that never was to fill the hole in my heart from the lack of closure in the movie and the old fanfic I still love today. Grad school will keep me from posting too much, but let me know what you think. My fiction writing is still rusty so any constructive criticism is welcome.

Katherine Blake was an unstoppable force of nature. The half-canid was only seventeen years old and a shoo-in for an early graduation, complete with ribbons and honors and a position as a midshipman in her Majesty's Imperial Navy. There was only one problem.

Jim Hawkins.

She'd heard of him, yes. Any aspiring spacer worth their salt put a little too much faith in the veracity of Treasure Planet, and every one of them had felt justified when the rumors that the Dean of the Royal Interstellar Academy had run off to hunt for buried treasure turned out to be real. Kate's roommate, a tentacled, many-eyed girl from Febsdirth had been thrilled to regale everyone in the mess hall about what she'd overheard the assistant dean saying about three months after Captain Smollett had slipped away from the campus.

"I heard that they found Treasure Planet," Smi, the Febsdirthian, whispered theatrically, her eyes rotating and bending at their stems. "There was a mutiny though, and the ship went down in flames due to the teamwork of Captain Long John Silver and a giant Vikhensian spider. Lucky for Captain Smollett, though, some genius called James Hawkins was with her, and that man built a solar surfer in under 10 seconds out of scrap ship parts and rescued the crew that hadn't been murdered in the mutiny."

The students all blinked suspiciously, confused to whether or not Smi's story was true. There were just enough fantastical elements that it was incredible, yet still believable. For some, anyways.

"How could someone build a solar surfer in under 10 seconds?" Kate demanded, her ears perking up. She had recently begun showing off her ears again, despite the teasing it had originally garnered her when she had started the Academy two years ago. She was a sturdy girl, with crooked teeth and a humanid face, but with the nose and ears of a canid. Her mother was supposedly humanid, but had passed away in childbirth. Kate had never dared ask her father for a picture. "Wouldn't it be inherently unstable, even if this Hawkins guy managed to even get it running in the first place?"

"Why do you have to be so logical all the time, Kate?" Smi sighed, slithering down off the table she had perched on to peddle her gossip to passerbys.

"I'm not always logical," Kate said, logically. She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ears. There were a few pieces of her orange-blond garish mess of hair that someone – obviously not her father – in her gene pool had straddled her with non-consensually that never stayed in place, no matter how many pins she poked. And Kate poked pins. She spent at least three or four odd coins a week buying new bobby pins to keep her nest of hair out of her face. Some people – Smi included, due to the girl wearing a light striped sundress today rather than her uniform – didn't give two hoots about the dress code. Teachers didn't usually enforce it, beyond for formal occasions, when everyone was in their best brass. But Kate was unstoppable, and she wasn't about to let a dress code violation stand in her way from being the best spacer out there.

"Do you even believe this gossip you're spreading, Smi?"

"It's not gossip. I heard the assistant Dean telling his secretary about it. It might be hear say, but it's not gossip."

"Now who's being logical?" Kate laughed, hefting her bag of books over her shoulder. Smi and Kate were here for very different reasons – Smi wanted to work at a spaceport. She was hoping to become a sailmaker at a local shop. Kate was far more ambitious. But the girls got along well enough, and enough time together with a person will make them, at the very least, bearable.

"I'd love to ask Captain Smollett what it was like," Smi said, dreamily, probably thinking of the "hearsay" she could spread for weeks with that kind of ammunition.

Kate agreed wholeheartedly.

\---

Smi quickly forgot about her desire to talk to Captain Smollett, but Kate did not. Two days later, she heard one of her calculus professors mention that the dean had returned in case any student had needed her for something important. Kate wondered what would happen if she slipped into the Dean's office and struck up a conversation.

She wasn't a stranger to the Dean, that was for sure. Captain Smollett was only an officer that happened to teach a navigation course during Kate's very first semester. Commander Smollett, she'd been called, and she'd noticed that Kate had seemed nervous and self-conscious. The intelligent felid had taken Kate under her wing for a few weeks, before the semester was over and she'd gotten a promotion. That being said, Amelia had always checked in on Kate in her own fashion, which usually involved running into her in one of the building's hallways and brusquely asking, "And how are your classes, Miss Blake?"

After her very last class of the week, Kate saw Captain Smollett storming off to her office, shouting something about mountains of paperwork and being roadblocked by total idiocy. Kate took a breath, and without thinking very much, walked over to the heavy oak door that Captain Smollett had already slammed shut. The Arkington building was where administrative offices and astronomy classes were housed: a narrow brick building far younger than many of the cold steel and glass buildings built eons ago.

Kate knocked.

"What." Captain Smollett was not asking a question from the other side of the door – she was issuing a challenge, a dare for the knocker to open the barrier between them and continue to ruin her day. Kate started stepping away from the door slowly. It had been a mistake. She didn't make them often, but sometimes she didn't realize how people felt things so strongly sometimes. Kate was not the best with human (or canid for that matter) emotions. She assumed she got that from her father. It was one of his defining features.

Before Kate had walked too far from the door, it flew open. Captain Smollett was only halfway in her uniform – her jacket, hat and medals had disappeared in the ten minutes she'd been hiding, leaving the woman in leggings, a baggy white shirt and clumping space boots. Kate loved clumping space boots.

"Miss Blake," Captain Smollett seemed mollified. "I apologize. I thought you might be someone else. Do come in. I just put on a kettle and perhaps I poured a little too much. Join me."

Kate's ears were still ringing from the door slamming open, and her heart was pumping just a little faster than a normal heart should, but she nodded her assent and went into Captain Smollett's office, which she'd never officially been inside. It was all dark wood paneling, with medals and letters and pictures on the walls, purple velvet curtains and armchairs and cushions and an enormous desk tucked away to the side with at least three two foot stacks of papers. Captain Smollett caught Kate's stare.

"Blasted paperwork keeps multiplying. I knew it would grow while I was away, but I didn't know that it would breed."

"I didn't realize there was so much paperwork involved with running the Academy," Kate said politely, walking over to a contraption on a side table. It seemed to be a small solar panel affixed to a round piece of metal that was boiling a kettle. Captain Smollett laughed at Kate's interest.

"That's a glorified hot plate," she said, "A friend of mine gave it to me the other day. Said he thought my tea addiction could be satiated in my office, rather than having to go to the mess hall with my pot."

If Kate had noticed a small blush creep across the Captain's face when she said "friend," Kate didn't say anything. The Captain pulled out the said pot, a large brown ceramic monstrosity and poured the boiling water into it.

"What brings you here, Miss Blake?" she asked, measuring out tea leaves from a container that had the tea fields of Vikhens crudely painted on. "I don't think you've ever visited me in my offices."

"I wanted to say hello," Kate began, uncertainly. "I hadn't seen you in the halls for a while and some interesting rumors were beginning to fly."

"You never struck me as a gossip feeder."

"I'm not. But I'd have to have lost my ears to not have heard any of it."

"So you're here to get it straight from the horse's mouth," Captain Smollett was amused. Her eyes had widened playfully as she poured tea into two large mugs that matched the teapot. "Have a seat, Kate."

The Captain had never used Kate's first name before and it sounded odd in her clipped accent. Kate took the armchair nearest to the desk and took a sip of the hot tea, which was a little weak to be perfectly honest. Captain Smollett sat behind her desk and started sifting through the paperwork while drinking her tea, silent for a few minutes. Kate didn't push anything, already amazed at her luck at getting into the office and being given tea. She continued to drink the weak tea, peeking around the office without trying to be rude. The large window behind the desk looked out to the common area which was bustling with young spacers getting ready for a few days free from classes. Two boys were passing a bottle of cheap wine back and forth and laughing at something.

There was a comfortable silence in the office. It hadn't stretched long enough for Kate to consider if she was imposing, or if the Captain was trying to bore her out of the office.

"Goddamnit!" the Captain exclaimed, breaking Kate's interest in the rowdy boys in the commons.

"What's wrong?"

"I forgot to finish up Hawkin's paperwork. I was supposed to file it with admissions today. Goddamnit." Captain Smollett swore again.

"Hawkins…as in James Hawkins?"

"Heard of him, have you?"

"In one of the rumors, yes," Kate said, uncertainly. "I was told he was a mechanical genius…I assumed – assuming he was real that is – that he was a bit older than an Academy student."

Captain Smollett barked out a laugh. "Hardly. The boy's barely seventeen. He is a mechanical genius, I will give the rumor that. The boy found Flint's treasure map back during the rainy season and I swear to the heavens that he was the only one who could work it. Saved us from a lot of trouble towards the end, there, too, though I'm not sure I agree with his methods of dealing with hardened criminals."

"Long John Silver?" Kate's uncertainty was gone and she let her burning curiosity shine through. "I'd heard my father talk of him before."

The Captain's ears perked quizzically. She knew of Kate's father and found the girl's offhand comment interesting, but didn't say anything about it. "The very same. He and his crew masqueraded as a legitimate crew for hire and the benefactor of our journey fell for their ploy. I won't disagree that Silver had a change of heart towards the end of the journey…quite a bit after the mutiny…but Hawkins seemed to think that the easiest way to deal with the problem was let the pirate escape from the ship. The two had bonded before the mutiny when Silver was trying to blend in, and then afterwards when the pirate saved the boy from a certain death."

Kate shook her head incredulously. She would have never let a criminal escape from justice. "And you want this boy in the Academy, Captain? He seems a bit…unorthodox." Her uncertainty was creeping back in. She didn't want it to seem as though she was questioning the Captain's judgement.

"The boy is a genius, Kate. And I'd much rather deal with his authority problems through excessive schooling than have to track him down and shoot him when he joins some smuggling gang."

"Genius." Kate repeated. Something was gnawing at her. She wasn't sure what it was. She wasn't good with strong emotions, so she wrote it off as a stomach ache from too much fried purp at lunch.

"A diamond in the rough," Captain Smollett agreed. "Moody, unpredictable and more often than not a pain in my ass on the voyage, but he has a cool head under pressure, and a good heart. And I've never seen someone throw together a solar surfer in less than a minute. It was unstable, sure, and he almost killed himself, but the Navy needs that kind of man sometimes."

Kate wasn't sure what to say to that, but Captain Smollett's tongue was finally loose. The entire story of the voyage to Treasure Planet unfurled and Kate listened, rapt by the Captain's factual account. She didn't need to embellish the story – it was wild enough as it was.

Hours later, when Amelia had finally sent the girl packing, Kate walked out into the commons, where the three moons were shining down on the two boys who were far less raucous that earlier. She ignored their calls to her to come join them as she marched back to her dorm, digesting everything the Captain had told her.

The Captain had been Kate's favorite professor. When she had awkwardly sat in the back of the room, unsure of how to behave, Captain Smollett had pushed her out of her shell and gotten her to participate in the classes. Kate knew that the Captain had seen some of the bullying that had happened during the first semester. Kate's father was the admiral of the Royal Navy, Stevenson Blake, a seven-foot tall, stoic canid with a strong jaw and no tolerance for mediocrity. Some of the older students had targeted Kate early on, telling her she'd only gotten in due to her father's position. Captain Smollett had found Kate holed up in the library one day after class.

"Don't listen to those imbeciles," the Captain had offered, without needing an explanation. "I've seen your homework, Miss Blake, and I've met your father. I know you are here on your own merit."

"I just wish people didn't mention it," Kate had mumbled.

"Well, keep your chin up; you're level-headed and sharp. The Navy needs that kind of man sometimes."

"The Navy needs that kind of man sometimes." Kate finally recognized that stomach ache – it wasn't too many fried purps. It was jealousy.


	2. In Which Katherine Blake Gives James Hawkins the Grand Tour

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! This chapter took a little longer than I expected. It's a little slow and not much happens, but I wanted to really explore what the Academy was like, and establish a decent meeting between our two main characters that examined some of their foibles and such. Let me know what you think!

It appeared as though Jim Hawkins would continually intersect with Kate's existence even before he stepped foot on the Academy's campus. He started two weeks after the semester started, and much to Kate's dismay, was placed in second year classes. She guessed that living through a pirate mutiny and finding a treasure hidden for ages qualified him to test out of basic spacer classes. It didn't make her any happier though.

She met him three days after her after-hours office soiree. Captain Smollett had accosted Kate in the hall, abruptly turning with perked ears.

"Blake, I'm going to need you to do me a favor. Hawkins will be down at the spaceport within the next hour. Can you run down there and get him sorted for the day? I would've gone myself but this blasted dullard of an admissions clerk hasn't finished processing the boy's application and I swear to the heavens that I will do it myself if I have to." The sentence ended in a threat that was not directed at Kate, though it added to the gravitas of the request.

"Of course, Captain." Kate said, her face smiling but her heart sinking. "I'll go now."

"That'll do, Kate."

Kate began walking away, hefting her bag of books onto her shoulder and clipping her space boots across the marble hallway of the mathematics building. She heard Smi call to her, but Kate didn't turn. She marched straight to the door of Conninghum Hall and headed down to the spaceport.

\---

Kate stood uncertainly at the docks, arguing with her jealousy while she waited.

It's not his fault that the Captain is smitten with his spacer skills, she told the stomach ache logically.

There are only three midshipmen positions though, the stomach ache answered, settling in smugly. It was right. Only the top three students got midshipmen positions in Empire sponsored export trips. The rest of the class stayed behind for a year of more classes. Kate knew that she was one of the best candidates, but so were Annick and Plott, two boys from the Anterra Asteroid belt. And Dalia, a young woman with blue skin and white eyes, who'd came to the Academy all the way from Proteus 9, had been trying very hard to improve her position this past semester. Adding a fifth to the mix cut her chances down, especially if this James Hawkins was a mechanical genius. Kate was less than perfect with machinery. Sails, navigation, leadership, guns, math…you name it and she had excelled. But anything more difficult than a boiler or a circuit took hours and hours to understand. The stomach ache sighed happily as she fed it her anxieties.

"Are you Katherine Blake?" a deep voice asked. She whipped around, feeling the pins start to fall out of her hair already, even though it wasn't quite midday yet. She was face to face with a humanid boy about a half a head taller than her. The sides of his hair were shaved but a large, messy, brown tuft resided on the top of his head, falling in every direction. His left ear was pierced and he seemed to be wearing a shirt and pair of pants that were two sizes too large for him. He'd dropped a duffel bag and oversized green jacket on the dock near his clumpy spacer booted feet. Kate wasn't sure what to think of him. He looked like a juvenile delinquent, if she was being honest, though there was a twinkle of good humor in his blue eyes that seemed to be taking her in as much as hers were taking in him.

"I am," she said, stretching out a hand. He shook it firmly and grasped her arm with his other hand.

"Jim Hawkins. Thanks for meeting me," he said, smiling. "I appreciate it. I have no idea what's going on quite yet."

"Captain Smollett sort of ordered me to," Kate said, somewhere between friendly and prickly. Her stomach ache was back in full force. His ease was something she could never replicate and she already knew that he was going to be too nice for her to feel justified in her hatred. "Almost ran me over in the hall and snapped out an order to come pick you up and show you the ropes."

"I hope it wasn't an inconvenience."

"No, not at all – classes are over for the day."

There was an uncomfortable silence between the two. Jim seemed to be staring right at her, but Kate was trying to look at anything but Jim. There was something about his eyes, a sharp blue that seemed to hold entire galaxies that she found unnerving. She watched people bustle in and out of the few shops dotting the port and load back onto the ferry which was probably headed off to Laenrei before it looped back to Montressor.

"Did you have a good trip?" she offered. It was by no means a peace offering, but she was tired of being observed. He laughed a little, tilting his head back, breaking his gaze.

"Oh, you know. Ferry ride."

Kate nodded, also laughing a little, though she had to force it out. His ease was just as unnerving as his stare. Kate couldn't picture this boy hiding alone in the astronomy tower, crying for hours because his father had told him that he was failure because he hadn't gotten perfect scores in all of his classes. But that memory had to be plastered all over her face. He had to see how out of place she was, how she was struggling to please her father and Captain Smollett, how she wasn't nearly as put together as she pretended she was. She knew he could see it – the churning in her stomach was happening again and she could barely float, so she gestured for Jim to follow her and they began trudging up to the Academy.

Katherine Blake was an interesting girl. She'd walked to the port to pick Jim up and walk him to the Academy to get him settled in, but had waved it off as a favor to the Captain. He couldn't decide if she was friendly or rude, and decided to stick to the former until further notice. She was uptight, he knew that; it was no wonder her and the Captain were some sort of pair. They had the same ramrod posture and the same, precise way of speaking, though Kate didn't have Amelia's knack for three dollar words and snapping orders. It would come later, he told himself, when she was the captain of some enormous crew.

Jim watched her as she walked slightly ahead. She seemed to be trying to nail her hair to her head into a perfect knot with a million pins that fell out every time she turned around to make sure he was following. He wondered if she ever literally let her hair down. She was kind of pretty, Jim decided, and probably very smart.

"What year are you?" He asked, trying to get her to talk and slow down. He wanted to take in the sights before they started on the long asphalt road up to the Academy.

"Second."

"So you're…seventeen?"

"Yes."

"So am I," he said, slinging his bag to his other shoulder. They'd passed the entrance to the spaceport and were heading on up the hill. The Academy was a mess of buildings behind a long white picket fence on the horizon. "Just turned a few weeks ago."

"While you were on voyage."

"Yeah," he grinned sheepishly. He still wasn't sure if he should downplay or brag about his adventures. Neither option quite captured the complicated feelings he had about the voyage. Neither option quite captured the feelings that shocked him awake at night, his heart racing, remembering the empty life line anchor. He decided to go with downplaying it with Katherine, though. She'd probably appreciate false modesty. "I'd honestly forgotten about it until I got back and my mother had a half-eaten birthday cake on the counter for me."

"Hmmmmmmm," Katherine contributed.

"You know how mothers are," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Hmmmmmmm," Katherine contributed again.

"Not a conversation person?" Jim said slyly.

"I wouldn't say that," Katherine said, "I just don't really know what mothers are like and I didn't want to be a downer."

Again with that friendly/prickly voice.

"How are the classes here? I haven't really been in school for a few years."

This stopped Katherine. She slowed down her pace considerably. "Are you serious?"

Jim shrugged. "I, uh, haven't always been the best kid. I kind of slacked off…and it was kind of hard on Mom so I picked up a few odd jobs in the mines here and there and it just…there was never time for school." He didn't want to go into detail. He was turning over a new leaf. He was rattling the stars and this was the first step and he wasn't going to trip by reliving the days spent in the mines surfing, digging and bringing home either coins or cops to his mother, depending on how the week was.

"Welll," Katherine said, suddenly a little less prickly. "The classes are very vigorous. But they're doable. And if you need any help, I can, uh, always help you out in the library or something."

She was very pretty, Jim decided. It would be his goal to be friends with Katherine Blake – she was on top of things and he was going to need a friend to keep him on the straight and narrow. So far, she was doing a great job as she clicked up the cobblestone path that took them from the ornate wrought iron gateway to the front building of the Academy. It was a monstrosity of a skyscraper, glass and steel, with no real design, just a haphazard array of towers and windows.

In through the door they went, Katherine still two steps ahead of Jim and as quiet as before. He watched the back of her head where her pins were trying to flee from the curls. It was as if they couldn't get a grip on the wild mess that all the hairgrease in the world couldn't fix.

Jim was trying to make sense of the papers that they'd gotten from admissions. He wasn't good with letters or numbers – they seemed to dance away from his eyes on the page. He shook his head almost imperceptibly, trying to get the symbols to stay still. The first page was simple enough; his information, his qualifications, the scholarship that the Captain had pulled favors for. The second was a list of buildings with codes and times written in odd columns and rows.

"Schedule?" He asked, his voice a little higher than it had been at the spaceport. He held it out to Kate, hoping she'd snatch it and order him in the right direction. She did, sort of, though her snatching was more of a less than enthusiastic pluck, with an almost snide look in her eyes.

"It looks like you're dorming in Corventron. That's my building, I can show you in a minute."

Jim blushed, "The dorms are co-ed?"

Kate looked at him sternly, "The floors are separated by gender. Boys on one floor, girls on the next. Are ships separated by gender?"

"Sorry," Jim said, his blush receding. "I hadn't really thought about it."

"It looks like you're in all of my classes," Kate said, pushing on, almost dismayed. Jim could not get a handle on this girl. "Advanced navigation, calculus, intermediate sailmaking, intermediate engineering, Navy history and a weekly practice at the armory.

"Um. Calculus?"

"It's essential for engineering and navigation," Kate lectured.

"I'm not the best with numbers."

"I told you I would help you."

Jim didn't think Kate knew what she was getting herself into, but decided not to tell her. "Whatever you say, Kat."

"Kate." She corrected.

"Aw, c'mon," he wheedled.

She stared at him disapprovingly. "Let me show you to Corventron. You can get settled and then I'll give you the grand tour."

He nodded, still smiling, and dutifully followed her through the mismatched buildings of the Royal Interstellar Academy. The cobblestone paths connecting the buildings together winded and twisted through greenery Jim had never seen before. Montressor was a brown and grey mining planet, with machines more common than trees. But the lawn of the Academy was peppered with tall trees and rose bushes and well-maintained bright green slopes. He took it all in while trying to keep up with Kate's formidable pace. They took a left. They took a right. They slipped under an awning of trees, taking a dirt path up to a circle of four simple, three story wooden barracks.

"Corventron, Abilade, Robierre Louise, and Stevenson. Named after the four admirals in Her Majesty's Navy during the Great War. Corvertron is the one in the back on the left."

Kate was pushing her pins in again. She jabbed one frustratedly into the back of her head, but it stuck out of the bun almost comically, before popping out and clicking onto the cobblestones. Jim bent to pick it up.

"You missed one," he took a step towards her and held it out. For a split second he was back at the Benbow. His mother was slaving away over stacks of dishes and he was at the door of the kitchen, sweeping dutifully and trying not to think about how he was trying to hide his most recent transgression from his mom. He'd been caught trying to steal a longboat for a joyride at the port. The cops hadn't gotten involved, but the owner of that particular dock had thrown Jim up against the wall of a shop window and threatening to beat the daylights out of him. There was a suspicious bruise on his face that he was hoping Sarah wouldn't notice. When his mother did see the bruise, she was up to her elbows in suds and up to her ears in stress and frustration.

"James Pleiades Hawkins, what in hell have you done now? Are you brawling in the streets?"

"It's nothing, Mom," Jim whispered, staring at his mother. Guilt was gnawing at him already and he looked down at the woman who did her best to care for him. "You've lost a hairpin." He was changing the subject, picking up the pin she dropped and tucking it into the knot on the top of her head. His mother burst into tears and ran out of the kitchen, suds and all.

Jim shot back to the present, where he had just slipped the pin into Katherine's orange nest of curls. Her eyes narrowed and she blushed slightly, before tucking a stray hair behind her ear and scurrying ahead to open the main door to Corventron. The front of the first floor was a plain sitting room, with a few threadbare couches and bookshelves packed full of notebooks, papers and maps. The door at the end of the sitting room opened to a hallway of dorms, with stairs on either side of the end of the hall.

"It's the same layout on every floor," Kate said, checking Jim's schedule which she was still holding, her cheeks still a bright pink. "It looks like you're on floor two."

"Are you on the third floor?"

"Yes. It actually looks out onto the spaceport, which is…nice."

"You'll have to show me sometime," Jim didn't think anything of what he was saying, but her cheeks reddened. He wondered if she was reading into his words, embarrassed by his second action of perceived forwardness.

"Here we are – room 208." She knocked, a hard, snapping knock. No one answered. They opened the door on an empty room with a bed, dresser, desk, chair, sink and wardrobe. It was a nice, simple room, even if it was a little cramped and more than a little dusty.

"You would get a single room," Kate sniffed.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Kate shrugged, obviously not about to explain herself. "If you want, you can unpack and I can come back later to give you the tour."

"You can stay," Jim offered, pointing to the chair. "I didn't bring very much."

\---

Jim was right – he hadn't brought much of anything. Apart from the oversized jacket, which he handled as though it was precious treasure when he hung it up in the wardrobe, his duffel bag contained a few changes of clothing, some toiletries, a half-torn pad of paper and a bronze spherical object that he shoved deeply into the bottom drawer of his desk as quickly as possible. Kate didn't comment, but was very curious as to what the sphere was.

"My mother said she could send me whatever I needed," Jim said as he watched Kate's eyes take in his paltry amount of belongings. "Most of it was burned in a fire a few months ago."

"The commissary has pretty much everything you'll need," said Kate. "You can go there with me before navigation tomorrow. And then we can get your books afterwards and I'll help you with anything you're having trouble with at the library."

"You're being awfully nice."

"I told Captain Smollett that I would help," she said again, not meeting his eyes. There was another reason that Kate was willingly engaging with Jim Hawkins more than she expected she would. What was that her father always said? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. No use openly disliking Jim when she could hang around him and act tolerable. It would let her keep an eye on how likely he was going to get this midshipman position.


	3. In Which James Hawkins Makes a New Friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome! I'm so proud of myself for finishing up an update in only a few days. Originally this was supposed to be part of the last chapter but it was getting lengthy so I decided to chop them up and work on this one a little more because it has a new character and some development on Jim which I think deserves a few extra days for editing. :D I promise this is the last expository chapter for a bit - the next one (which I might have out in a day or so because I'm on a writing roll and I have Monday off work because MLKJ Day) is tentatively titled "In Which James Hawkins Is Almost Expelled (Twice)" and will introduce some conflict to the story. As always, let me know what you think!

The next week passed in a blur. Jim tried his best to remember the ten or so days after his walk with Kate from the spaceport, but all he could really grasp was a shadowy memory of running, writing frantic notes and trying his best to stay afloat. Classes were hell. There was a reason that he had stopped attending school – besides the money and the vanishing father – it was difficult for him to sit still and pay attention to the endless droning of someone who'd probably never even done what they were instructing on. The Academy was a little different in that last aspect – the engineering class was taught by a veteran Master Engineer who'd been in the Navy for twenty odd years and advanced navigation was taught by a retired coxswain who did her best to keep her students occupied with situations that they would come across should they begin spacing either for the Navy or private vehicles. It didn't do much for Jim however; he was struggling with having been dropped into classes that had already begun.

Kate was somewhat helpful. She dutifully met him at the library every evening at five 'o clock and they did their homework together, Jim interrupting her every five minutes or so with desperate begging for help disguised thinly as questions about the material. She still hadn't seemed to warm up to him yet – he asked her about her life, what she planned on doing when she graduated and what she did in her off time and each time she danced about the answer, setting up walls that Jim felt didn't need to exist. They were tenuous friends.

Jim had managed to make a friend that was a little more willing to share information – Plott Davidson, from the Anterra asteroid belt live in the room across the hall and had barged into Jim's room unannounced right when Jim was thinking about how he couldn't remember the handful of days that had already passed.

"So you're Jim Hawkins." The boy was about a foot taller than Jim and fifty pounds lighter. He was a gangly blue-skinned boy with eight fingers on each hand and no hair to speak of. "Are the rumors true?"

"What rumors?" Jim asked, jumping up from his bed from the surprise visitor.

"That you built a solar surfer in under a minute and dove into an imploding planet to rescue an entire crew of treasure hunters, all before realizing that John Silver was your long-lost father who you had to help escape before he was imprisoned for life for his pirating ways." Plott had a loud voice that reverberated in the small space of Jim's dorm.

"Some of it's true," Jim said, shrugging. "You can figure out what is and what isn't."

His throat tightened at the mention of Silver. He missed the old pirate – staring off into space at night wondering what the old cyborg was up to and hoping that Silver knew his protégée was really trying to pick the correct battles to fight. He wasn't really Jim's father, but he might as well have been, which made Plott's gossip sting a little.

"You'll tell me soon" Plott ordered, "When we know each other better. Have you met anyone here yet? I don't think I've seen you talk to a single person."

"I've met Kate."

"Who?"

"The girl with the orange hair," Jim said, "Katherine Blake?"

"Oh her." Plott's voice was not inviting. "She's all right, I suppose."

Jim was instantly curious. "What do you mean by that?"

Plott's blue face split into a grin, revealing bright and shiny teeth. "How about when you tell me about Treasure Planet, I'll tell you what I know about Katherine Blake. Until then, how about we walk down to the spaceport to get some ale and whale? I'm starving and Annick is out cavorting with Marie."

"Marie?"

"Oh, she's a local girl who loves a boy in uniform," Plott's grin widened, which didn't seem possible. "If you're ever looking for a fun time, I'll introduce you."

Jim laughed. "Maybe some other time. But ale and whale sounds pretty neat. Uh, I'll be out in a second. Got to put some stuff away."

Plott left the room for Jim to start digging through the pockets of his coat. He knew his mother had sent some money with him, but he wasn't sure how much and he didn't want to use it all in one go. He knew that the Benbow was doing better, now that it was bigger and his mother had been able to set aside a few of the jewels from Silver's generosity that paid the salary of a part-time assistant, but he didn't want to rely on that to remain the truth forever. He knew what it was like to struggle to find enough coins to go out and buy a new pair of shoes for the winter and didn't want to get used to this much easier way of life.

He found a small stack of five note bills rolled together in his pocket, the money he had shoved away as soon as his mother had given it to him. He picked one off the top and hid the rest in the bottom of his desk drawer before shoving his coat on and ramming out the door, feeling a little more clearheaded. He had made a new friend who seemed nice enough, he was going to get food and there weren't any classes tomorrow. It was a decent enough respite from his goal of rattling stars, which was a bit harder than he expected it to be.

"Let's go," Plott had been standing right outside the door, picking at his fingernails. "I'm starving."

Jim and Plott made their way down the stairway to the main entrance of Corventron. Kate was sitting by the fireplace reading a book, while a Febsdirthian girl sat next to her chatting to no one in particular.

"Hey Kate," Jim said, pleasantly. The girl next to Kate immediately perked up, her many eyes rotating to zoom on Jim and Plott.

"Plott!" Smi said. "I haven't seen you in ages. When are you going to take me down to the inn at port like you promised? I'm tired of eating at the cafeteria and Kate never wants to go anywhere."

Plott winked at Smi. "We'll go tomorrow. I haven't gotten to know my floormate well enough. We need some time together tonight. Have to show him the ropes and all."

Smi looked over at Jim. "Are you Jim Hawkins? I've heard quite a bit about you; I thought you'd be older."

Jim shrugged, out of place with all the attention on him. He could see Kate peeking up from her reading at the scene in front of her, but she immediately glanced down as soon as they made eye contact. "Sorry to disappoint, uh…didn't catch your name?"

"Smi. Short for Smithereinia Heretsdine, but I don't expect anyone to really be able to pronounce that mouthful."

"Nice to meet you Smi."

"Pleasure's mine," she said, her eyes traveling all around, checking out the new boy in front of her. "You'll have to come with Plott and me tomorrow if you want. There's a place at the port that makes this delicious stew and it's only three crowns, which is perfect for a poor Academy grunt like me."

Kate snorted quietly from behind her book, which caused Smi to whip around. "What?"

"You're hardly poor," Kate mumbled.

"Well, she's poorer than you are Miss Admiral," Plott said, a little sharply. Kate's face went into a deep shade of red and she went back to her book, drawing in on herself. Jim was very confused by the exchange, but didn't have time to observe it further for Plott simply winked at Smi again and said, "I'll see you tomorrow, Smi," before walking out the door.

\---

"So what was that about?" Jim asked as the two boys sat down at a table in The Flying Sailboat, a small inn hidden in a back alley of the spaceport at the bottom of the hill – it was right across from the inn that Smi had raved about.

"What was what about?" Plott put down his meal – baked space whale blubber and a large mug of spiced ale.

"That whole 'Miss Admiral' bit back there?"

"Why are you so concerned about Katherine Blake? What's she to you?"

"Nothing really; she's helped me with my classes and she seems harmless to me."

Plott didn't say anything for a bit. "How about you tell me about you?"

"What do you want to know?"

"I asked earlier – how much of the rumors are true? How'd you get here? Where are you from? You know, the usual stuff that people who want to be friends ask each other."

"Well. I'm Jim Hawkins, I'm from Montressor and I got here because Captain Smollett pulled a bunch of favors with the Academy to let me in late and on a scholarship because she was, I don't know, impressed with what I did when we traveled to Treasure Planet."

"So, what'd you do?"

"It's a long story man."

"And we've got ale and food, so come on. This is my third year at the Academy and Anterra is a boring little asteroid belt with very little to do. I've had a boring life and it kind of sounds like you haven't. And, I mean, that's what all this is about. Space. Adventure. You've got to have done something amazing the way people talk about you."

"How do people talk about me?" Jim raised an eyebrow. He'd only returned a few weeks ago. How could rumors spread so quickly in the galaxy?

"You grew up near a spaceport, right? You know those stories that grow? The ones about pirates, the ones that your parents use to scare the crap out of you? Like that, except not scary. You're already half a legend and I kind of want to know what's true."

Jim laughed. "Fine. I'll tell you the whole story. The whole story of an angry dumb kid who managed to save a few people because he's a dumbass who doesn't know how to follow rules."

The ale helped loosen Jim's tongue. Plott was a decent listener, interrupting just enough to show he was invested in the story. The evening wore thin and soon it was last call for those who weren't staying at the inn. The two boys wandered out of the building, the cool air and metallic scent of the spaceport hitting them like a cannon.

Plott didn't seem to be in any mood to go back to the dorms, and curfew wasn't for a few hours. They ended up going to the astronomy tower, which Dr. Reinen left unlocked in case "anyone needed to study on non-class nights." Jim threw the lever to open up the hatch of the observatory so that the stars of the Etherium breathed down. They sat in silence for a bit – neither was drunk, but they were happily sitting on the edge of that space where vision was fuzzy on the very edges and talking wasn't a necessity.

"So you've already been out there," Plott broke the stillness.

"Yeah."

"Is it worth it? Is everything we're studying worth it?"

"I mean, I've only been in class for a week. But yeah, I think so. When you're up there in the rigging, watching all of space fly by it's all that matters."

Plott nodded, considering it. "I can't wait to get out there. I've been stuck for years on a farm in Anterra, helping my family so getting into the Academy was my one ticket out. I'll probably work in the Navy for a few years and when my time's up I think I'll have enough money to travel for a very long time."

Jim nodded. Plott was loud and brash – a kindred spirit. He was what Jim would've been if he'd stayed out of trouble and let everything bubble under the surface for years.

"You said you were from Montressor. Similar plan? Want to get away for good?"

"I mean, not really. Sil…Someone I met on my voyage told me I could rattle the stars and I think I'd like to do that. Do something big. On my own merit, not just panicked thinking right before a planet implosion. I thought the Academy might show me a way to do that. I, uh, got in a lot of trouble back home and I kind of want to make up for that. Make Mom proud and all."

"You going to try for a midshipman position?"

Jim quirked his head.

"You know," Plott explained, "You have to have heard by now. Miss Admiral had to have mentioned it to you in your little homework sessions."

"No, I can't say I have. It's been a long week, though."

"Well, at the end of this year, three of the third years will get a chance to be midshipmen for the Centurion. It's this huge ship that was just built and it's going on a test journey in spring. Diplomatic mission two galaxies over, I think. Usually a ship has only one midshipman, but since none of us have really spaced – except you – they're taking three of us. It's a year long journey and those of us unlucky enough to not get a spot will be left behind for a year of classes."

"Oh," Jim said, "That sounds pretty cool."

"It is. And Miss Admiral is going to get one of the positions so the rest of us have to jockey around to try and get it. I mean, some of us aren't going to try. People like Smi are just here to get a trade so they can go home and have a decent job. But there's probably six or seven of us who are trying to get one of those two spots."

"Why is Kate going to get a position? Have they already picked her?"

Plott laughed bitterly. "She's Admiral Blake's daughter. Captain Smollett and the board would have to be insane to not pick her."

"Wait. The Admiral Blake?" Jim may have grown up on a middle-of-nowhere mining planet, but even he knew who Admiral Blake, the head of the entire Navy for the whole Empire of Eteria was.

"The one and only. It's why she's so stuck-up. She can't stand being around the rest of us commoners."

"She doesn't seem snobby – I thought she was just shy."

Plott laughed again. "Sure. And I'm the mayor of Anterra. That girl comes from money and prestige and has always had everything. She can hardly be shy. Smi used to ask her to join us all when we went out on off time and every time she declined. She acts like she's the queen of the Empire. Mark my words Jim Hawkins, keep hanging around her and you'll see."

"Is that a threat?" Jim joked, too tipsy to take this conversation too seriously.

"Not really. Befriend who you want. Just giving you a warning that she's not as innocent as you think. Though I heard some teachers talking once and they said she was sent away to the Academy as punishment. I can't see what little Miss Snobby would have done to anger the Admiral, but I don't really care much….It just pisses me off that she gets everything and the rest of us have to work for it. Work twice as hard."

"I get it. I really do." Jim truly was listening to Plott, but he was also staring up at the sky. Where was Silver tonight? Was his mother in bed yet? He wondered about his father, his real one, the one that abandoned him for the stars. He wondered if all of this was worth it. He wondered if he was picking the right battles.


	4. Chapter Four: In Which James Hawkins Is Almost Expelled (Twice)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! I promised that I'd bring an interesting chapter with me. I hope that it lives up to the promise. It's a bit longer than I expected, but I had a lot of character development to get done in this chapter before we get some more intrigue and potential adventuring in the upcoming plotlines. I hope you like it! (Let me know how the formatting works for you. I'm not too fond of how scrunched together all the dialogue gets, but I also don't want to make the chapter twice as long just by putting huge spaces in there.)

The next few weeks passed uneventfully. Jim felt that he’d gotten his legs under him in most of his classes – they were wobbly, but doing their best to support him – and he spent most of his free time with Plott and an ever changing circle of friends. He and Kate had cut down their library sessions to twice a week, once at the very beginning and once at the end. Jim tried his best to find out if Plott’s assessment of the so-called “Miss Admiral” was correct, but he could never tell. There were moments, when she seemed to forget herself, talking rapidly to Jim about their classes and how best to tackle certain assignments. Jim had improved his calculus grade by a few points and she split a tentative grin and offered congratulations. Then there were other times where she seemed to purposefully be in a bad mood, ignoring his questions and snidely commenting on his poor studying skills. She was quite a mystery to Jim when they were together, but he didn’t lose sleep over it.  
One particular end-of-the-week session found them scratching away at a diagram of a broken solar sail, writing an essay on how they would repair it with limited supplies and manpower.  
“What are you thinking is the response that Master Godsin is looking for?” Jim demanded, already tired after a half a paragraph. In his mind, he saw himself looking for the electrical shorting in the sail, repair the wires as best as he could and use the thrusters on the ship to their maximum capacity to get to the nearest port where enough supplies could be found to actually repair the sail.  
Kate shrugged.  
“Well, what are you going to write?”  
“I’m not sure,” she said, also having written only about half a paragraph. This was new for Jim. Kate was usually halfway through an assignment and was willing to direct Jim in the correct method of finishing it.  
Jim shared what he was thinking.  
“I mean, I suppose,” Kate responded, “But wouldn’t that put you behind schedule? And isn’t prolonged use of a ship’s thrusters also risky?”  
“The thrusters would make up for time, and I could repair them while we also got the sail repaired.”  
“I’m not sure that’s correct procedure.” Kate began consulting one of their textbooks, a hefty tome filled with the stories of previous Navy journeys and their outcomes. She riffled through the pages, before stopping on an arbitrary page and staring at a point on the table between the book and her essay.  
“Is everything okay, Kate?”  
Kate didn’t say anything for a moment. “Everything is fine, Jim. I won’t be able to help you Monday. My father’s coming into town and he wants me to visit him.”  
“That sounds exciting,” Jim proffered, trying to figure out what emotion Kate was trying to hide. She seemed a bit unenthusiastic, bitter almost.  
“I suppose…perhaps, if the solar sail just wasn’t storing enough energy, I could just rig together a makeshift battery with more storage space and hook it up to multiple sails, including the broken one. Most sails take in more energy than they store, right? We’d slow down a bit, but we could make up that time once we had a larger amount of energy.”  
“That sounds like the safe method.”  
The two scratched at their essays for quite some time in silence. Kate was uncharacteristically fidgety – jiggling her leg, glancing up at the ceiling and paying much less attention to her homework than usual. Jim wondered if he should say anything.  
“I heard we’ll be taking longboats out for our navigation course on Friday,” Kate said suddenly. “Have you ever flown one before?”  
“I have, yeah,” Jim thought back to a few months ago, driving the skiff with Silver into a cloud of stardust. That moment when everything seemed still and perfect. He was a little worse for wear now, he’d seen a few people die, he’d said goodbye to Silver and he was slogging through the Academy, but he still had that moment inside of him. “Have you?”  
“Once.” Her tone was not inviting, but Jim pressed anyways, “How was it?”  
“Not the best. I crashed it.” Kate pulled back her left sleeve, showing a forearm with a huge scar, running from wrist to elbow. “Broke my arm. And the boat, I suppose.”  
Jim laughed.  
“What?”  
“You don’t seem like the type to crash a skiff. Why were you flying?”  
“I’d rather not talk about it.”  
Jim opened his mouth but thought better of it. The two finished their homework session together without another word and walked back to Corventron, book bags slung over their backs. Kate was so out of it, she didn’t notice her hair pins popping out one by one as they slogged across the entire campus, cutting through the alley between the astronomy observatory and the administrative quarters. By the time they made it to the small hill that led up to the dorms, her tight knot had sagged to the nape of her neck and about a quarter of her curls were dangling around her face, free from their prison. Jim smiled – she seemed like a normal girl, walking home from school. He was struck again by that thought he had on the docks of the port – Katherine Blake was kind of pretty.  
“What?” she asked, catching his stare.  
“Nothing. Your hair looks nice.”  
Her hands went absentmindedly up and tried to grab everything back into place, but it was a futile effort. “You’re teasing me.”  
“No, I’m not. You should let your hair down more often.”  
Kate narrowed her eyes. She didn’t seem to believe him when he said he wasn’t teasing her.  
“I really mean it, Kate.”  
They stopped in front of the door to their dorm building, gazes locked. He was trying to convey honesty and she was definitely silently accusing him of bullying her. The door opened as she leaned on it. Kate topped backwards, landing on her backside. There was a small group of students in the main area, about to go out for the weekend, who burst into applause at her lack of grace.  
“Little Miss Admiral isn’t looking too ship-shape today,” a girl cackled, putting her hands on the top of her head and flopping them back and forth, imitating canid ears. “What a shame. Clean up your brass Miss Admiral Blake.”  
The rest of the students laughed as well. Jim stood, transfixed, not sure of what to do. Kate stared up at him, her face a bright red. When he didn’t say anything, she stood up and shoved him.  
“Thanks for not teasing me,” she bit out, leaving her books on the floor and storming back outside. Jim turned to follow her, but she was already gone, having disappeared into the dusky evening. His stomach twisted as he bent down to pick up the books she’d left. The students trickled out of Corventron, still laughing about Kate’s disheveled state. He started walking up the stairs, wondering what room she stayed in so that he could at least leave her bag outside the door. He remembered she had mentioned the third floor, so he went up a flight higher than normal, hoping that maybe Smi was hanging around.  
He was in luck. The tentacled teenager was leaving a room, humming to herself, dressed in a bright yellow frock that showed off her figure.  
“Hey Jim,” her face split into a grin. “What are you doing up here?”  
“Kate left her, um, books at the library. I thought I’d drop them off for her.”  
Smi looked suspiciously at him, obviously not believing that Kate would just leave her book bag somewhere, but shrugged it off and opened the door to their dorm room. “Her bed’s the one on the right.”  
Jim didn’t really need to be told that – the room was twice the size of his, mirror imaged on itself. One side was covered in clutter – letters pinned to the wall, dresses thrown over the armchair and just a general sense of a girl enjoying life in what small space she had. The other side was like a ghost lived there. There was nothing identifying of any sort all throughout the left side of the room. A blank notepad and a few pens were on the desk, the bed was impeccably made and every drawer was shut. Jim set the books down on the bed and left the room with Smi.  
“Looking for something to do tonight?”  
“Not really,” he said, “I think I need to turn in for the night.”  
“Let me know if you change your mind. I’ve got a date with Dirriq from calculus, but I feel like it’ll be dull, so feel free to join us. We’ll be down by the armory. He wants to smoke a cigar, or something dumb like that.”  
Jim laughed. “Let me know how it goes, Smi, but I really am going to bed. It’s been a long day.”  
\---  
Kate was in the astronomy tower. She hadn’t opened the hatch. She never did. This was her hiding place – she knew a lot of students used the place, but she always seemed to find it empty when she needed it. Kate didn’t need to see the sky – she needed darkness, an enclosed space that wrapped its arms safely around her.  
She was crying. Tears dripped down her cheeks, landing on her knees, which she’d drawn to her chest. Her orange hair had fallen all around her. She hadn’t bought any new pins, so she’d probably have to go around the next few days with it down. That was part of the reason it was so hard for her to stop crying. She could imagine the comments she’d be getting, just like the ones she had tonight.  
Jim Hawkins was an idiot. For a second at their studying night, she had thought she might like him, might actually see him as a friend. She had almost opened her mouth to tell him that she was dreading her father’s visit. The Admiral would threaten to take her home, especially with her less-than-perfect marks in sailmaking and engineering. He hadn’t even wanted her to come here, but after her boat accident he had relented. It was almost a punishment, sending her to the Academy.  
It was three years ago. She was fifteen years old and had just finished high school. Kate had begged her father to let her go to the Academy – she wanted a Navy career. Her father had been against it, and had been hinting that she should go to the local university to pick up a foreign language. Kate had a bad habit of hiding in dark spaces to clear her mind, which often meant she was deep in the coat closet when her father was discussing something with the Emperor and the other members of the Eterian government. She knew full well that her father was willing to send her off to another galaxy to work as a diplomat (and potentially marry a high ranking official) in their government. That future terrified Kate. She couldn’t rely on herself to be anything but a quiet, awkward mess of meticulousness. A smooth-talking politician’s wife was not in her cards.  
It terrified her so much that one night she had packed everything important to her – a few books, the bronze sextant she’d swiped from her father’s desk when she was seven years old, and a diamond bracelet that she knew belonged to her late mother. Kate snuck out of the house while her father was out on a brief mission and she stole his longboat. It wasn’t hard to do – but it was hard to operate. She was headed for the Academy – only a planet away. Technically a four hour ride. He had gone countless times to inspect the place. She had gone with him once when she was younger.  
Kate was never good with machinery. It wasn’t in her blood. Once she’d finally gotten the thing to turn on and move upward, blasting through the atmosphere she struggled to keep it going. There were so many screens and buttons to pay attention to, each one flashing and making noise as if the boat knew exactly what she was doing. It was difficult to pay attention to the steering she had to do to keep herself safely in the sunside wind that would coast her to the Academy.  
That was where her memory ended. From what she pieced together later, she had managed to coast to the atmosphere of her destination, and it was then things went downhill very quickly. The engine burnt out as she tried to re-enter the planet’s gravitational pull and she plummeted downwards, landing the longboat nose first in the shooting range at the back of the school. One of the professors had found her, unconscious among shattered wood, melted metal and a shredded solar sail. Her arm was broken, lolling in a direction it shouldn’t have been, a wooden beam going in one side near her elbow and cutting through the muscle diagonally until it popped out at her wrist.  
In the darkness of the astronomy tower, Kate instinctively touched her arm. She never had much pain in it – the school doctor had burned off most of the nerves when he mended the bones and stitched her back together. What could feel pain though was her ego. She rolled her eyes at her younger self, dumb enough to believe she could just steal a longboat and make it to the Academy, no application on file and expect them to take her, especially when she’d planned on not using her real name. Young Kate had been dumb and impulsive, but she was older now. Both Kates still ran away when they didn’t know what to do and cried in dark spaces. Which was where she was now.  
Her father had come to her in the Academy hospital in a rage two weeks later.  
“What the hell was going through your head to make you think that what you did was acceptable?” Admiral Blake was an imposing figure when he was calm; he was a terrifying demigod when he was angry. “Do you know what you’ve done, Katherine? I had to leave an inspection of the Lyonesse before an attack on the Procyon armada. Your childishness could cost the Empire a war. What do you have to say for yourself?”  
Kate stared up at her father from her hospital bed, where she’d been napping. The doctor had told her that she’d be up and close to normal within a day or so. Her bruises had started to fade and it no longer hurt to breathe. “I wanted to go to the Academy.” Her voice was tiny, a molecule of a tone in comparison to her father’s planet of a shout.  
“You wanted to go to the Academy?” the words were a mockery. “You wanted to go to the Academy.”  
She didn’t know how to respond, so she stared at the sheets of her bed.  
“Fine. Go to the Academy. I’ll even pull some strings so they let you in. But be warned – the instant you start to fail, I’ll be dragging you back home and you’ll be off to the university. I expect that will be sometime next month.”  
The tears fell out as her father stormed away, slamming the door behind him.  
She sometimes wondered if he weaseled her into the Royal Interstellar Academy on purpose. Did he know how students would automatically assume he did it for her and would turn against her because of that? Did he know that she would freeze up every time it was mentioned because it was true, technically, that her father had strong armed his daughter into one of the most prestigious schools of the galaxy?  
Kate had done well for herself, she made it through the teasing. She hadn’t realized that some of it would be because she was a canid – the social circles she grew up in had never paid attention to her breed. Sometimes those were the comments that hurt the most – she couldn’t ever change her appearance, her race. She could eventually prove people wrong that she wasn’t there on her own merit – she couldn’t prove the comments about her ears and hair wrong.  
Her father visited from time to time. They were uncomfortable visits, bursting with raging silence and clipped comments about her grades. He found ways to bully her into thinking she was about to fail, usually leaving with a threat to take her home the next time he came back. Kate clung to her studies, giving up almost every opportunity to relax and have a good time so that she could have a different future than the one she’d been handed. It was that hope she clung to as she fell asleep, tucked into the nets and crates of the astronomy tower.  
\---  
“WOOOOOOOOOO,” Jim screamed, delighted. He was surfing again. Plott had tracked him down the next morning, saying that he had found a spare solar surfer in one of the storage sheds and asked if Jim wanted to go try it out in the fields behind the Academy’s campus. Jim hadn’t been surfing since he’d built a claptrap board on the Legacy’s fateful journey. As far as he knew, his personal board was still impounded at the yard on Montressor. But now he was zooming through the fields, cutting sideways and riding the rails of a fence, shouting expletives at the sky, his rebellious streak bursting out.  
“Oh my god, where did you learn that?” Plott demanded as Jim jumped off the board and they headed back to put the board where they found it. “You’re amazing!”  
“There’s not much to do back on Montressor. You kind of pick up whatever you can to keep the boredom at bay.”  
The boys were locking the board up in the shed when they ran into Captain Amelia, who did not look as though she was about to congratulate them on their solar surfing skills.  
“Good afternoon, Captain,” Plott winked, trying to scoot past her.  
“Plott Davidson, I would advise that you not weasel your way out of this,” Amelia clipped out, “What were you boys doing with that solar surfer?”  
“We were just out on a ride,” Jim explained, feeling as though he was missing something. Plott had made it out that the solar surfers were widely available for student recreational purposes. Had he known differently, he may have avoided the back fields. No reason to start trouble so quickly.  
“Hawkins, I’m honestly surprised. I thought you’d beaten out your hooliganism during out journey. I suppose I was mistaken. The equipment in the storage shed is for professors to use as necessary for classes. As I do not remember either of you as being enrolled in the Advanced Small Machine Repair course, I don’t believe that you have access to this particular solar board. Should I continue to imply your wrongdoing, or will you own up to it yourselves?”  
“We were just having a bit of fun,” Plott wheedled.  
“At the cost of potentially demolishing school property?”  
“We didn’t break anything Captain,” Jim said, “And I can promise that it won’t happen again.”  
Amelia stared disapprovingly at him for longer than Jim was comfortable with. “See to it that it doesn’t. I would hate to have to expel you so shortly after you joining us, Hawkins. And Davidson, this is the fourth time that I have had to discipline you for disobeying Academy policies. You do realize the last time that we talked, I said that you would be removed from the running for a midshipman position should you continue to flaunt my orders?”  
“But Captain”- Plott protested, his face morphing into abject horror in a millisecond.  
“Don’t ‘But Captain’ me. You knew the rules. If you plan on being successful in the Navy, perhaps you should start to think through the consequences of your actions. Consider yourself removed from my consideration list.”  
“And Hawkins isn’t?”  
“Hawkins doesn’t have a long history of rule breaking at the Academy. Though he should consider this his first strike.” Amelia turned abruptly on her heel and marched back down the path, leaving two dejected boys behind.  
“You said that we wouldn’t get in trouble for using the board,” Jim was angry. He wasn’t trying to be a goody-two-shoes by any means, but having important information withheld from him felt like betrayal.  
“Yeah, I didn’t think we’d be caught,” Plott muttered, “And I didn’t think she meant it when I got in trouble last. God, fuck this! Now I’m stuck here for another year and I’ve got to compete to be top of the losers.”  
Jim didn’t say anything. He understood why Plott did what he did, but he wasn’t sure he was ready to be dragged back into that behavior. Not so early on in his career.  
\---  
Jim ended up going to the astronomy tower. It wasn’t star gazing time, but he figured it was an easy way to shake off Plott, who was murderously muttering to himself while he walked back to Corventron. He needed a moment to think. He seemed to be needing quite a few of those lately; with no impending doom and a resolution to behave himself, his mind wasn’t operating as clearly as it used to. He stomped up the spiral staircase, whipping open the door at the top and slamming his hand on the lever that opened the hatch.  
Sunlight burst in, turning the dusky room into a blinding arena.  
“Wha…?” Jim heard a voice from the corner of the room. He turned to his right to find a disheveled and groggy Kate Blake. “Jim?”  
“What are you doing here?” He hadn’t expected anyone to be up here at eleven thirty in the morning, much less Kate Blake who appeared to have just woken up from a nap among the spare nets and blankets that Dr. Reinen had piled between stacks of crates.  
“I was… I was…” Kate didn’t seem to have an answer. She took in the light blaring in for the first time, before a horrified expression appeared. “Is it morning?”  
“Yeah, it’s almost noon. Did you sleep here last night?”  
She didn’t answer, instead turning a bright shade of red as she stood up from her makeshift nest. She seemed to be getting her bearings, and remembering that she was mad at Jim.  
“About last night,” Jim said, before he could think about it. “I’m sorry. I should’ve said something to the kids in the dorm.”  
Kate continued to not say anything, but finally made eye contact.  
“Next time I’ll stand up for you,” he said, firmly. “You shouldn’t get this much flack. And you’re a really good student and every time we study I know that you’re leagues ahead of me and I wish other people knew how smart you were.”  
Kate burst into tears, sliding back down into the pile of fabric. Loud, body-wracking sobs escaped from her mouth that she tried to muffle by covering her face with her hands.  
Jim did not know what to do. He wasn’t expecting this reaction – he was expecting her to stiffly accept his apology and be on her way. He bent down, resting on his heels and put a hand tentatively on her shoulder.  
“Um, Kate? Is everything alright?”  
“You’re an idiot,” she sniffed, trying her best to bring back her composure. It wasn’t working. She hadn’t pulled away from his hand, so Jim decided to try what his mother used to do for him right after his father had left. He sat down next to her properly, and drew her to him. His arm went gently around her back and he rested the side of his face on the top of her hair.  
“What’s wrong, Kate?”  
She sobbed harder. He immediately pulled back, worried he’d crossed a line. He had no idea what he was doing, what was wrong, but he still felt bad about the night before and he’d never seen Katherine Blake behave this way. Jim could barely believe she had such emotions inside her – it was if they were bubbling out of a pot that had been left to boil too long.  
“No, no, you’re fine,” she cried, leaning into him. Jim went back to awkwardly holding her.  
“I’m fine? So you’re not mad at me?”  
Kate didn’t hear him, and kept crying.  
“Hey. Hey. Hey, Kate. Look at me.”  
She turned her face to him, streams of tears beading down from her very red eyes. Kate was a mess. Her hair was going in every direction, her uniform was dusty and wrinkled and there were dark circles under her eyes.  
“It’s okay. Whatever you’re worried about, it’s going to be okay.” It’s what his mother used to say: “Everything will be okay, Jim. Everything is going to be okay.”  
“You’re an idiot,” she said again, though her voice was clearer. “It hasn’t been okay for years.”  
“What hasn’t?”  
“Nothing.”  
“Kate, you can tell me. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”  
She drew away from him and pulled her knees up to her chest, trying to stem her tears. “How am I supposed to trust you?”  
“What have you got to lose?”  
“Not much, I suppose,” she laughed while still crying, which made snot fly down her upper lip. “I’m a disaster right now.”  
Jim stood up, and offered his hand to her. “Why don’t we go back to the dorm and we can talk? I can hear voices down below and I’m sure you don’t want to be overheard. And you can clean up if you want to.”  
Kate took his hand. “I’d like that.”  
\---  
They were in Jim’s room, since Smi had been in Kate’s room, reading a novel and eating crackers. Kate was lounging on the bed, wearing dark leggings and a tunic four sizes too big. She didn’t have many outfits outside of her three uniforms. She’d brushed her hair out, and washed her face and seemed far calmer than earlier. Jim sat on the end of the bed cross-legged, having kicked his boots to the floor. He’d locked the door to ward off a Plott invasion.  
Kate worked her way through the story of how she arrived at the Academy haltingly. She pulled back the sleeve of her tunic to show Jim the scar.  
“So my father is coming here on Monday and I’m just not looking forward to it. I want the midshipman spot so badly. If I could fly away from him for a year, I’d be happy I think.”  
It was early evening now. The sun was just starting to set.  
“What’s your father like?” Kate sighed.  
Jim froze. “He’s gone.”  
“He’s…dead?”  
“No, he’s gone. He left. He ran away.”  
“Oh.”  
“Yeah. I guess that having a family was too hard for him. I don’t know. He was a good father when he was around. But he just kept leaving and going off to space. His journeys got longer and longer and the last thing I remember was him and my mother fighting downstairs. She was crying and he was talking about how he needed to go, how he wouldn’t be back. Some bullshit about the stars calling to him. I ran after him, but it was too late. He took off in a longboat and I never saw him again. Good riddance I say. He shouldn’t have run because things were hard.”  
Kate looked ashamed.  
“I don’t mean it like that,” Jim blurted out, “You didn’t choose the way your life is. He didn’t have to marry my mom! He didn’t have to make a family just to leave them. It’s…it’s fine. I’m doing fine. You’ll do fine too. Better, even.”  
Kate smiled weakly. “Thanks, Jim. Having someone listen was nice.”  
They sat in silence for a while, but rather than their uncomfortably swollen studying silences, this one was relaxing. Kate was dozing off on Jim’s pillows when he jolted her awake for the second time that day.  
“Have you ever had fun here?”  
“What do you mean?”  
“Have you ever had fun? Have you ever gone down to the port and had fun? Gone dancing or drinking or anything like that?”  
Kate shook her head. “I need as much time as I can to study. I honestly should be getting back to my room to finish up that engineering essay.”  
“Kate, you need one moment to yourself. Come on. We’ll go down to port and look at all the ships and talk about sailing and grab ale or something. Your father’s coming in a few days and you should relax.”  
She was torn. The offer was definitely appealing, and she really wanted a few more hours of not worrying as much as she usually did. Here was an escape, another longboat to steal – James Hawkins of Treasure Planet fame offering her an outing. She waved away the worries about school and the engineering essay. She ground her heel into the little purp monster in the pit of her stomach and nodded. “Let’s go.”  
At The Silver Fish, an inn that was built on a ship that was permanently anchored to one of the docks, a band was playing lively music on fiddles and accordions. There were all sorts of young people dancing about the floor, hooting and shouting and clapping along to the frenzied beat. Jim and Kate joined the fray, joining hands and cavorting throughout the wide space. Kate was laughing a real laugh, a squeal of joy. Jim grinned back. This girl needed fresh air – he thought about what they could do if they were back on Montressor. He’d show her how to surf, and they’d blaze through the mines and she would laugh just like she was laughing now. Maybe when he wasn’t in such hot water he could see about having his mother rescue his board from the impound lot and bringing it to campus.  
They ate a whole platter of grilled asteroid sprouts with their bare hands and drank the sweet cider that the inn was famous for. Kate was tipsy on the cider and her momentary freedom. Her vow of silence had been lifted and she chattered away to Jim, telling him about her years at the academy, what it was like growing up as the Admiral’s daughter and her hopes for the future.  
“I know that if I join the Navy, I’ll be working for my father. But how else do I get to voyage away from everything? It’s not like I can be a pirate.”  
“Why not?” Jim raised his voice over the music.  
“My father would make it his mission to destroy me if I became a pirate,” she laughed, “Can you see it? Besides, I don’t think I have the backbone for it.”  
Jim laughed too. They stood back up and whirled around some more, switching partners with the other young folks in the inn, weaving back and forth until they broke off for more cider.  
“Let’s go back,” Kate said, several hours after they’d made it to the port. It was getting close to eleven. The inn was still bursting with guests, but she was getting winded. They made their way through the crowd into the slightly quieter streets of the docks.  
“What now?” Jim asked. “We have three hours before curfew. We can do anything you’d like.”  
“Let’s go back to Corventron. I think I’ve had enough fun for the night – and we can do this again another time. I don’t have to be a shut in all the time.” Kate was so giddy she was almost skipping. She turned to Jim, her face ablaze with a smile that revealed crooked teeth.  
“Okay,” Jim smiled back. “Let’s go back. We can start a fire in the common area and study if you want.”  
As they walked back, Kate slipped her hand into Jim’s. He wasn’t sure what to think of it. Jim had never liked a girl before – acting out because your father left you didn’t leave much time for romance. He wasn’t even sure he liked Kate in that way – his mother had always gotten on him for his problem of bringing injured animals home and begging to fix and keep them. He supposed Kate was an injured animal. When he’d seen her crying earlier in the morning, he’d immediately wanted to help her and fix what had upset her.  
Jim realized he was overthinking the whole thing when he saw Kate laugh at nothing in particular. The girl was happy for once and was trying to share it with him as best she could. It was gesture of friendship, almost childlike.  
The common area was filled to the brim with students who were already working on essays and chatting. Kate smiled and waved to them, which confused some of them so much that the room fell deadly silent. Jim saw a few classmates’ eyes zoom in on his hand clasped in Kate’s, but he didn’t move. He wasn’t about to freeze up and let last night repeat itself.  
“Did you want to work down here?” he asked her.  
“No, we can go up to my room. Smi won’t be in there.”  
Smi was, in fact, in the room, locked in an embrace with Dirriq from calculus. Kate snapped the door shut instantly, looking slightly terrified.  
“My room then?” Jim asked.  
“Sure.”  
They worked away on their essays for a bit, but Kate was fidgeting again. She stood up from the desk, which Jim had graciously given her while he laid on the floor, propped up by his forearms, and read some of the textbook. She plopped onto Jim’s bed, her mood having dropped a little.  
“I hate engineering. It’s my worst subject.”  
Jim stood up as well, looking for an excuse to leave the uncomfortable wood floor. “It’s not too hard. I prefer it over calculus.”  
Kate shook her head. “Calculus is easy. It’s when we have to apply it to making batteries and repairing engines that it doesn’t make sense anymore.”  
“Agree to disagree.”  
Kate shrugged as Jim sat on the bed with her. It was strange how a little over twelve hours had changed their interactions completely. They talked about nothing in particular as they came down from the buzz from the inn that had blown them upwards to the sky. Jim saw the clock hit midnight before his eyes began to close. He should probably tell Kate to go back to her room, but the impending cloud of sleep whispered that she was bright enough to take care of herself.  
Apparently, the cloud of sleep was very, very wrong. Kate was shocked awake for the second time in two days and Jim for the first time as the dorm room was slammed open. There, in all of his uniformed glory, was Admiral Stevenson Blake.


	5. In Which James Hawkins Meets The Admiral

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This chapter's a bit shorter than the last one, but I had a lot of fun with it. I have a lot of fun writing Admiral Blake, he's such a horrible father. (No spoilers, but he's got an interesting storyline ahead of him...) My updates to this may start to become a little more spaced out - I just started my last semester of grad school and I'm working full-time so finding time to write can be a little dicey. I promise that I won't disappear though - I have a twenty-five chapter outline that I'm determined to finish by the end of the year.

Kate heard Jim whisper “shit” to himself. She knew exactly what it looked like to her father. They hadn’t been caught in a truly compromising position – when they were lying on the bed the night before, talking to each other, they had been facing on another. Admiral Blake had to have seen that they weren’t doing what it might have first looked like they were doing. Kate flew off the bed, her face white with fear.

“Father, it’s not what you think.”

“And what,” the Admiral’s voice was deadly quiet, “Do you think I’m thinking right now?”

“Sir, it’s my fault,” Jim piped up, also standing up from his bunk. “Kate came over last night to study and we stayed up too late. It was entirely innocent.”

Admiral Stevenson Blake looked down at this upstart of a young man. “Who is this, Kate?”

“I’m Jim Hawkins, sir,” Jim saluted weakly. He wasn’t quite sure how to behave around the commander of the entire empire’s Navy. It wasn’t until the fourth year of classes that students were divided between Naval and non-Naval tracks.

“The Jim Hawkins? The rule-breaking, delinquent of a cabin boy that nearly cost every single life on the RLS Legacy? The one that let John Silver escape, rather than face trial for hundreds of suspected murders? That Jim Hawkins?”

“Yes, sir.”

Kate wanted nothing more than to dissolve into a puddle on the floor.

“Kate, I didn’t realize you were friends with a celebrity.”

Jim looked like a cat that had been caught scratching up valuable furniture.

“Father, he’s telling the truth – I was over studying and time went faster than I realized.”

Admiral Blake’s eyes flashed. “Of course, Katherine. I’m glad you’ve made a new friend. Perhaps Jim would like to walk with us while I tour the school. I have a meeting with Captain Smollett and I’m sure she’d love to hear about how hard you two have been working on your studies.” Kate hated the voice her father was using. It was dangerously calm, and he would be releasing his rage shortly. She didn’t think Jim needed to be around for that occurrence.

“Father, I don’t think that Jim has time to-” she began before the Admiral cut her off. “Nonsense. I insist. I do apologize for coming in early, but my voyage to the galaxy edge to relieve some of the men on the front ended quicker than I expected. And I’m glad it did – I get to see how you’ve been spending your time at the Academy while I’m away.”

\--*--

Amelia was drinking tea in her office, having finally caught up on the paperwork she’d let slide while she was away.

“It’s a good day,” she told Delbert Doppler, who had stopped by for a visit before he continued to Eteria, where he was assisting the government with a project. “I’ve caught up on everything, the students haven’t done anything stupid and I might have time to go down to the armory for some shooting practice if nothing unusual happens. And it was lovely that you were able to have stopped by for tea. It’s been too long.”

“It has,” Delbert stammered, “I would have come sooner, but what with helping Sarah rebuild the Benbow and this new project from Parliament, I haven’t had as much time as I’d like. But now that I have to stay in Eteria to finish up the Centurion I might be able to break away a little more often. Make out…sorry, make up for lost time.”

“You’ll have to let me know more about the Centurion. I’ll need to be selecting midshipmen for it soon. Your Jim is doing fairly well. Now that one of the boys that was at the top of the running has misbehaved and gotten himself into too much trouble, he might be on that ship.”

“Delightful,” Doppler said, but he didn’t seem to be referencing what Amelia had just announced. He was struck by the figure the felid cut standing in front of the large bay window. If they could just have a day to themselves, all of the stress he was facing right now would melt away. There was something there between them, something that had bloomed while Amelia was feverish in B.E.N.’s hideout, but there had never been enough time to discover what that was. If only he could stop time for them both to have no distractions, no -

Delbert’s dreams were shattered as a rough knock on the door resounded through the office. Amelia let out a rough snarl, “What is it?”

The door opened onto the least likely group of people the Captain had expected to see. Admiral Stevenson Blake, his terrified daughter and a very uncomfortable Jim Hawkins.

“Admiral,” Amelia lost her originally sharp tone. She saluted, clicked her heels and gestured to one of the armchairs. Delbert grimaced and began slipping out of the office while the trio filtered in. “What do I owe the honor?” 

“Smollett, the journey ended sooner than I expected. We’ve beat back the Procyons much farther than planned. I know I was scheduled for a school inspection tomorrow, but I pushed it forward so that I can finish up on the Centurion on time.”

“And you’ve brought Katherine and James,” Amelia observed, both of whom were standing awkwardly by the door. “Shut the door, Hawkins. Have a seat. Did anyone want tea?”

No one answered, so Amelia just poured herself more. “What did you plan on inspecting today, Admiral? I believe that we’re up to date except for the armory and the administrative staff, who unfortunately are not in today, it being Sunday.”

“Then we’ll do the armory and I’ll be back after the new year for the staff. Smollett, I was also here to inquire after my daughter’s grades. Is there anything I should be concerned about?”

This was always the part of the inspection that the Captain hated the most. She had never known the full story, but knew enough of it to know exactly what Blake was looking for. He never did it in front of his daughter though, so she wondered what had changed. Kate looked as though she wanted nothing more than to be shot and have her soul leave the planet they resided on. The Captain pulled out a file from her desk. “As far as I can see, Miss Blake is the top in every one of her classes except sailmaking and engineering.”

“And what are her marks in those courses?”

Kate looked at the floor. Jim wanted to reach out and hold her hand – imbuing some of the energy that she’d had the night before. But her father was watching them both closely.

“Let me see, I had a new report sent over to me on Friday,” Amelia dug through her drawers, locating the file. “She is the about eight or nine marks from a perfect grade. There’s only one student ahead of her.”

“And that would be?”

“He’s in this room as well,” Amelia snapped the file shut, “Admiral, your daughter and Hawkins are definitely Navy-quality spacers. I’m very proud of the work Katherine has done over the years and James has excelled in the few weeks he’s been here. I, of course, would like them to continue to improve, but as of now they are both on the top of my consideration list for the Centurion’s first journey. Now, if you don’t mind me rushing you, would you mind walking down to the armory with me? I have a…meeting with an old friend this afternoon.”

Admiral Blake didn’t say anything but he stood up from his chair. He didn’t look happy.

“Blake, Hawkins, see that you go down to the library and finish up that engineering essay that’s due tomorrow if you haven’t already. I’d love to bring you both with us to the shooting range, but I’d rather not have students have access to all of our weaponry.” Captain Amelia ushered the Admiral out the door before she whipped back towards them and did something that neither Kate nor Jim had ever seen her do before. The Captain winked.

\--*--

Down at the armory, Amelia had pulled out every single weapon that the school owned and she and Stevenson were firing them to make sure they were still in working order. Admiral Blake was also examining each model number to see if any weapons were no longer used in standard Navy practice. It was standard fare for an examination, but Amelia was already ready for it to be over.

“What is your policy regarding student fraternization?” he asked, after having fired off an electric arc with a rail gun.

“It happens, I suppose,” Amelia responded, taking the gun and rotating it to make sure there weren’t any imperfections. “Pile a group of young adults fresh out of high school in shared housing and mischief is bound to occur. There are no rules against it to my knowledge. Should I be concerned about something?”

“I went to stop by my daughter’s dorm this morning to be met by her panicking roommate, who hadn’t seen her since the night before, when she’d left the dorm to visit a certain James Hawkins. I found them asleep in his room. I assume there will be some form of punishment for breaking curfew?”

Amelia sighed internally. She really liked Katherine Blake – she also really liked James Hawkins. She thought that Blake would’ve been a good influence on Hawkins, but perhaps the reverse was occurring. She was also extremely reticent about giving Admiral Blake a reason to punish his daughter. Amelia Smollett prided herself on being independent and aware of her surroundings – it’s what made her into an excellent captain. It also led her to notice flaws in her superiors, who she didn’t want to argue with. “I will talk to the two. Did they give you any explanation?”

“Said they had stayed up too late ‘studying’.” The Admiral obviously thought this was a lie and he snorted gruffly as he cocked a pistol and shot it into the adjacent field.

“I wouldn’t put it past your daughter, sir. I have yet to see her engage in any frivolities.”

“And Hawkins?”

“He’s…unorthodox, I’ll give you that.”

“I cannot believe that you gave him a spot, in the third year simply because he was lucky. I still have half a mind to arrest him for aiding a criminal.”

“Highly unprovable, Admiral,” Amelia said, blithely, pulling out a small hand cannon and lobbing a ball of fire into the pebbled shooting range. “John Silver overpowered the boy and stole a longboat. The boy had a black eye and there were several gunshots below the deck. Silver is a volatile man. I’d hardly trust a seventeen year old boy to handle that situation well. Which is why I took it upon myself to oversee he received an excellent education.”

Stevenson huffed again. Amelia Smollett was efficient, he’d give her that. Perhaps too efficient.

\--*--

Hidden in the stacks of the library, Kate was panicking. “I’m going to be sent home, Jim, I just know it. Captain Smollett wasn’t there, so she’ll have to believe whatever my father tells her. Why did I let myself go out last night; I should have known better.”

“It’ll be okay,” Jim repeated himself for about the thirtieth time that weekend. “I’ll take the fall. It was my fault anyway. I should have sent you back to your room when we started dozing off and I didn’t.”

Neither of them said anything for a moment. Jim seemed unable to look directly at Kate, who was blinking rapidly as the full extent of what had happened hit her. She had slept with James Hawkins. Shared a bed, at least. She hadn’t thought anything of it at the time – they were talking and as their words began spacing themselves farther and farther apart and their eyes began closing, all her mind had done was beckon her into the darkness. Ever since then it had been a whirlwind of anxieties. Only now was she truly thinking about what she had done.

Jim apparently was also thinking about it as he looked at every single thing in the aisle they were hiding except Kate. “Will your father be back, or will he leave after the inspection?”

“I’m not sure. Our meetings have never, um, quite turned out this way.”

Jim laughed, almost hysterically. It was a high-pitched laugh that bordered on a cackle. His laugh made Kate laugh. Soon the two were on the floor, laughing much louder than they should have been, clutching at their sides as they released the stress from the morning.

“How do the meetings normally go?” Jim asked as they began to calm down after hearing a loud shush from the librarian on duty. “Is your father usually nicer?”

“No. He’s not. I do hope he’s done and that he doesn’t come back.”

“Does he ever…” Jim didn’t seem to want to finish the sentence but Kate knew what he was implying.

“No…he…um, no. He’s never laid a finger on me. I almost wish he would. It might be easier to hate him.”

Jim nodded, unsure of what to say.

“I just…no matter what comes of this, I had a lot of fun last night, Jim. I think I’m glad you made me go to the inn.”

“You think?”

“The day’s not over just yet.”


	6. Chapter Six: In Which James and Katherine Begin Their First Journey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the delay! I was absolutely stuck on this chapter for the longest time, but I had some papers due this weekend, so my procrastination kicked in and I got to hammer this chapter out. :) I'm hoping to get the next chapter out fairly quickly - there's quite the surprise on that ship and I can't wait to show it to you. This chapter shows off some of Smi's silliness, which was super fun to write. As always, let me know what you think!

Chapter Six: In Which James and Katherine Begin Their First Journey

 

Admiral Blake never returned so the two walked back to Corventron, after finishing up their essays in the library. Jim was cheering up Kate with stories about B.E.N., who was currently helping out at the Benbow. The robot hadn’t quite adjusted to country living yet but his haplessness was made up for by the many things he was able to take care of at the inn. Kate was laughing at a particular tale that involved B.E.N. misunderstanding how much soap to put in dishwater. Jim watched her laughing, as he explained what a kitchen full of soap bubbles from ceiling to floor looks like, a small smile on his face. There was something about this canid girl, with her crooked teeth and curt way of speaking, something that he couldn’t quite recognize. It made him feel good though, like back when his parents were still together. When there were moments when they went out on the dock behind the inn and watched meteor showers, in between his father’s increasingly long spacing journeys.

“What?” Kate asked, abruptly stopping mid-laugh. “You’re looking at me weird again.”

“It’s…nothing. It’s been a weird day.”

Kate nodded, shrugging it off. Jim Hawkins was completely and absolutely right.

~*~*~*~

Kate had slipped away while Jim had stopped to talk to Annick about their plan for the longboat excursion on Friday. She didn’t want to think about how she was going to have to fly again and was imagining a pain in her arm that wasn’t really there. She planned on going up to her room and taking a real nap. Her slumber in the astronomy tower and in Jim’s room had been fitful and her neck was stiff from sleeping in a sitting position. Kate Blake was absolutely exhausted. She ambled up the stairs and opened the door to her room to find Smi still reading a novel, this time lounging on one of the desks, her tentacles splayed in many directions.

“Where have you been?” Smi demanded, immediately shutting her book. “I know we don’t spend much time together, but you disappeared for almost two days!”

Kate bit her lip, unsure of what to tell her roommate. Before Jim, Smi was the closest thing that she had to a friend, but the Febsdirthian girl definitely was a bit of a gossip, and Kate still wasn’t sure how open and different she planned to be after her whirlwind of experiences. “It’s been…very busy.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Smi was immediately curious. “You disappeared last night with Jim Hawkins and some military guy storms into our room this morning and demands to know where you are and I’ve been slightly terrified if you can’t tell – I’ve been waiting for you to return all day, I could have taken the ferry to Montressor to see my brother who was in town but I didn’t because what if you were in trouble, and I was going to go to Captain Smollett if you weren’t back by this evening and I-”

“Smi, it’s fine,” Kate snorted a little bit at the melodrama. “The military man was my father. He was looking for me this morning.”

“And where were you?”

Kate didn’t say anything, not wanting to share the information with potentially the entire student body. She cast around for some explanation, something believable, something that kept Jim out of the picture. Sure, they hadn’t done anything, but there was a reason that her father had been angry and it would be the same reason that Smi might happily tell everyone about Kate.

“I was…I was…”

Smi’s plethora of eyes all narrowed. “Were you with Jim?”

“No, I, uh, I, um, I was…I was…in the, um, I was in the library…”

Smi looked at Kate disapprovingly. “I have never seen you lie in your life, Blake, you need to get better at it. So how was it?”

Kate blushed. Her cheeks had to have been a permanent shade of a dark red at this point. “How was what, Smi? I went up to his room to study and we fell asleep on accident.”

Smi let out a burst of laughter. “I used that excuse when Lieutenant Hollant found me and Hanna in a broom closet at the library. It didn’t work then and it’s not working now.”

Kate threw up her hands. “It’s true though! I swear on my life. Smi, when have I ever given you the impression that I would sneak into a boy’s room for…nefarious purposes?”

Smi laughed again. “I have half a mind to believe you because no self-respecting person who has kissed someone would call it ‘nefarious purposes’.”

“I’ve kissed someone before!”

“Have you? Was it Hawkins?”

Kate’s entire face was red. “No it was not.”

Smi grinned. “But you wish it was, don’t you? I wouldn’t mind studying with him either, Kate. You know, I really pegged you as a stiff when we started rooming together, but this is quite the rebellious streak, I don’t know why you don’t hang around me more often, we could actually be really good friends-”

Kate cut Smi off. “We are friends.”

“Yeah, but not friends. And don’t change the subject. You like Jim Hawkins.”

Kate threw up her hands again. “Smi you can’t tell anyone!”

“Tell anyone what? What Plott has already started telling everyone?”

“What is Plott telling everyone?” Kate moaned, her hands in a constant state of waving above her shoulders. “As if this weekend wasn’t bad enough?”

“Bad enough? I thought you had fun with Hawkins.”

“I didn’t have fun when my father found me in his room. I didn’t have fun when he pretty much tried to get me expelled for it. I didn’t have fun knowing that Jim Hawkins wants to be friends with me because he pities me.”

Smi nodded. “Now you’re getting it. Let it all out, Blake. This is what having a roommate is all about.”

“What is Plott telling everyone?”

“He definitely saw you go into Jim’s room and never saw you leave. I told him to leave off, but he seems a little angry at Jim for something, I have no idea what, I thought they were thick as thieves, but you know how Plott can’t ever act like an adult. He’s definitely telling everyone about it, but I think people think that he’s joking because I mean let’s be honest Kate, you’ve never really made yourself out to be the type of student who would ever do such a thing.”

Kate stared at Smi, who stopped babbling and the room became instantly quiet. The tentacled girl seemed to realize that Kate was terrified. It was odd to see the emotionless teacher’s pet become a mess of a person in only a few days. “Kate. It really is nothing. I saw Hanna and Dirriq laugh in Plott’s face when he was telling them about it. Just shrug it off. You have to learn to stand up for yourself better. I can’t do it for you all the time.”

“When have you ever stood up for me Smi?”

“Whenever you’re not around. Why do you think people pick on you less? Because I tell them that you’re just quiet and you care too much about school. Not as many people think that you’re a snob anymore. Who do you think did that?”

Kate rolled her eyes. “Smi, you are exhausting sometimes.”

“I know. You’ll have to get used to it, now that we’re actually friends and you’re going to do things besides study.”

“I never said that.”

“How else are you going to get out of your shell and convince Hawkins to stop pitying you and actually like you?”

“Smi…” Kate warned.

“Okay, okay. Fine. I won’t meddle. Much.”

*~*~*~*

The next week passed uneventfully. Jim and Kate met for studying on Monday and didn’t talk much, and Kate went back to her regular routine for the most part, though she did go down with Smi to port on Wednesday night to listen to some street musicians. The two girls had a fun time, and talked a little more than they usually did. Kate still wasn’t entirely sure if she trusted Smi, but she really appreciated how she could lose herself in Smi’s chatter without feeling invisible. And Smi had been right; not a single person had mentioned the studying fiasco, not even Plott, who had already decided to not be mad at Jim and even referred to her as “Blake” instead of “Miss Admiral” when he accidentally bumped into her at the cafeteria. Kate felt like something was about to go horribly wrong, but told herself every night while she worried herself to sleep that her father’s unexpected visit was the horrible wrong and it had already happened. She should be in the clear.

Friday’s navigation class rolled around sooner than any of them expected. Lieutenant Hollant met them at port at the docks specifically owned by the Academy. There were five longboats in pristine conditions, with their glistening solar sails unfurled.

“I know that for most of your group assignments, I let you choose who you work with,” Hollant bit out. She was a stout woman, with two thick plaits of hair and no eyebrows. “However, this is the first time I’m letting all of you out on your own without any help, and it’s a fairly significant journey. You’ll be taking a four hour journey to Eteria, rotating around the planet, and then coming back. This is why we have an extra navigation course on Friday, so that we can start taking day long journeys. All that being said, I’ve selected the pairs based on what I think your talents are.”

“Why are we starting out with such a long journey,” Dalia raised her hand, her eyes wide.

“Because navigation requires a longer journey. You don’t really navigate if you’re just taking a skiff out on a ten minute joyride. Eteria is also the home of the Empire’s naval base, so I picked it so that if you have any issues on the way, a naval cruiser will immediately pick you up via their radars and send rescue. All of your longboats are equipped with autopilot that has the route programmed in, so if you veer too far off course, or can’t do anything, it will immediately take over and take you back here. That will affect your grade on this, so try not to muck it up.”

Kate gulped. She made eye contact with Jim, who was a few feet away. He smiled reassuringly, completely at ease with the eight hour journey that their professor was throwing them into.

“Now, I’m going to call out the pairs. There’s ten of you and five longboats, so I tried to pair up the more mechanically minded students with the ones that are better with navigation theory. Davidson and Althein!”

Plott and Dalia stepped forward.

“You’ll be in longboat four. I want you to start heading out. I’d like to stagger the launches so that you all don’t end up just creating a parade.”

As Plott and Dalia began working with the rigging on the sail and turning on the thrusters, Annick turned to Jim. The opposite of Plott, Annick was a quiet boy from one of the bigger cities on Anterra.

“I hope that we’re together, or all that work we’ve put in will seem like it’s wasted.”

Jim nodded, still eyeing the nervous Kate. “Definitely. You’re a whiz at navigation, man.”

“Loras and Tiltwick!”

Annick’s face fell. He’d been paired up with Roesa. Jim shared a rueful glance before Annick and Roesa also began their liftoff.

Hollant called out more pairs and each duo blasted into the atmosphere, quickly becoming small stars on the horizon. The only two students remaining in front of her were Kate and Jim.

“Hawkins, I’ve been very impressed with what you’ve done in such a short time, and Blake, your improvement in the past few months is immeasurable. I expect you both to do an excellent job on this little trip – if it goes well, I’ll be using it as the main reason for why I’m suggesting you both for the midshipmen positions.”

Kate was speechless, but Jim thanked the lieutenant and pushed Kate towards the longboat. They boarded, sitting across from each other. Kate uncertainly sat in the bow, her fingers swiping slowly through the radars and screens. Jim was already powering up the thrusters, yanking the steering levers almost violently and the two rose up into the sky. Kate watched the ground beneath them disappear and caught her breath in the split second it took for the oxygen bubble around the longboat to kick in.

Jim was in his element. He knew exactly what buttons to push, and ordered Kate through the navigation screens rather bossily. The coolness of the Etherium closed in on them as the dusk of space settled on the horizon.

“Are you ready for this?” he asked, once they’d successfully made it past the atmosphere.

“It’s too late to turn back,” Kate pointed out, trying to smile.

“We’re going to do fine! You heard the lieutenant. She wants to give us the midshipmen positions. We just have to do things by the book and you’re good that that.”

She smiled weakly. The planet they had just left was now about the size of a coin. “Have you flown before?” she paused. “That’s a dumb question. Of course you have. Treasure Planet and all that.”

Jim shrugged. “I told you when we first met, I didn’t really do that much. Swabbed a lot of decks. Helped Silver out with a few scouting rides. Learned some knots. Much less exciting than it sounds.”

Kate watched the galaxies around them become visible, twinkling through the dusk like holes perforated in a black curtain. “I wish that we didn’t have to go around Eteria.”

“Does it bring back memories of the first time you flew?”

“I suppose. It’s not as nerve-wracking this time, though. I have permission to use this longboat.” She forced a laugh. “And you won’t let us crash.”

Jim saluted. “I’ll try my best, Kat.”

One of their silences followed, Kate checking through the different radar screens to make sure that they were following the appropriate route, and double checking on the paper map that they’d had to make in class the week before. Jim hit button after button, twiddling the steering handles and tightening the lines on the sail. The two were a natural sailing pair, silently communicating exactly what needed to be done.

“What was John Silver like?” Kate broke the silence.

“He was…he had a bigger heart than a pirate should.”

This didn’t seem to ring true for Kate. “My father talked about him sometimes. I used to hide in the house when he had Navy meetings in our library. He’d often talk about pirates and smugglers that the Navy was hunting and John Silver seemed to frustrate him the most…Silver apparently was very good at vanishing at the wrong moment, with a wake of murders and thieving behind him.”

Jim frowned. “I know that he did all of those things. Hell, he burned down my mother’s inn and threatened to murder me with a hand cannon. But you know, when you picture a pirate, you imagine this heartless person who’d rather kill you than look at you. With Silver, you could see the struggle. And, I mean, I understood that.”

Kate tried to understand but couldn’t. “I don’t know why you didn’t turn him in.”

He shrugged. “Sometimes I don’t know either. I think Captain Smollett knows that I let him go, but she made up some story about him attacking me and stealing a skiff. I was so cut up from surfing to the portal mechanism, it’s not like I didn’t have enough bruises to make it believable. I’m really grateful she did, too, because the Navy was not happy when we didn’t have Silver like she’d immediately told them over radio. There was like this split second where I thought I might be going to jail. Which, I mean, wasn’t the first time I’ve thought that, but before it always for really petty stuff.”

Jim began telling Kate about his life as a juvenile delinquent, confirming her first impression of him from that day on the spaceport over a month ago.

“What’s that?” Kate stopped a particularly funny story about Jim falling into a mineshaft while trying to hide from the robo-cops. Jim looked to where she was tilting her head. There was a tiny dot about four leagues above them. Kate pulled up the vertical radar and zoomed in on the point. It seemed to be a small ship, a little larger than a longboat, hovering in space.

“Why are they stopped? In midair, an hour from any planet?” she asked.

Jim’s eyebrows knit together, just as confused as she was. “Can we check it out? Maybe they need help.”

“How far can we stray off course before autopilot kicks in and we get in trouble with the lieutenant?” Kate, ever the practical, inquired.

“I’m not sure. I might be able to figure it out.” Jim stood up and sat next to Kate, squeezing next to her on the narrow bench. He pulled up another screen, his fingers dancing around and pulling up a screen with strings of numbers and symbols. “They really should put better security on this. We can override the autopilot.”

“Will they know you did that?”

“I mean…we can say it glitched. It can happen, remember the case you made me read last week for engineering?”

Kate thought about it for a second. What if the ship truly was in trouble? What if the radar was off slightly and it was a longboat? It could be their classmates, stranded just slightly out of range of the simple scans that the Navy would be running to check on the incoming students. “Let’s do it.”

“Aye aye, Cap’n.”


	7. Chapter Seven: In Which Katherine Blake Goes Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Again, sorry for the longer stretches in updating. I'm almost halfway done with my last semester to get my masters degree!!! (and I caught the stomach flu, but that's not nearly as exciting, though it did delay writing just as much.) Thank you for the comments and kudos (I'm still figuring out AO3, so I only noticed them a few days ago.) This chapter is nice, fluffy and a little romantic, which might seem soon, but I'm not a big fan of long and slow burns. It doesn't usually happen that way in real life, especially with teenagers, lol. There's going to be a fairly long time skip (think a few months) within the next couple of chapters, so don't worry - I won't keep dragging out the every day life for too much longer. As always let me know what you think!

Chapter 7: In Which Katherine Blake Goes Home

There was something off the closer they got to the ship. It was a small civilian sloop suspended in midair. Its sail was fluttering gently in the Etherium breeze, but the ship wasn't moving. It seemed abandoned and lifeless – there was no burst of light from the back of the ship and the solar receptors on the panel were not alight. Jim was intrigued. Who would sail a ship out so close to the planet where the Royal Navy resided and just abandon it? How had the Navy scouts, which surely patrolled outside of the planet's orbit, not found this ship?

"Jim, I'm not so sure this is a good idea," Kate breathed. They were still sitting next to each other on the bow bench. Jim had put the longboat to drift with the wind so they could slowly approach the ship and get a better view before doing anything. "I have a bad feeling about this ship."

Jim didn't say anything. He knew that Kate was probably right, that they were already outside of their navigation path, and that they didn't have long if they wanted to play it off as a glitch. But he was curious, and unlike Kate, was the type of spacer to immediately approach anything that was worrying him. He pulled a spyglass out from the compartment under the navigation panel and began examining the sloop.

"Do you see anything?" she asked, pulling up the radar again. The longboats weren't made for intricate reconnaissance – they had simple tools for a simple journey to ease students into the Navy, so the radar only showed the outline of the sloop. She knew there were more complex scanners that would show the heat of the ship to figure out how many people, if any, were on the ship.

"I…hold on, I think so," Jim said, fidgeting with the brass spyglass. "There's a flag on the top. It's…just like a sheet of metal? Hey, what are you doing?" Kate had stood up so quickly, she had rocked the longboat, jolting the spyglass into Jim's nose.

"Jim, we have to go now. We need to get to Eteria immediately."

"What, why?" he tried to get a better look at the sloop. There was a gangly Vikhensian slinking out from the hold and moving to the ship's wheel. "There's someone on deck now."

"Jim, we need to go. Immediately."

Jim still didn't do anything. He was watching the spider-y alien skulking about on the deck. There was something oddly familiar about the figure, something he couldn't put his finger on, something sneaking in the back of Jim's mind.

"Jim!" Kate snapped. She'd sat down on the stern bench and had started to turn the longboat around. "We're leaving!" She powered the ship back on and they nose-dived down back into their original wind-path.

Jim knew exactly why Kate had crashed the first time she'd ever flew. Flying required you to be stronger than the boat – you had to steer it where you needed it to go and push the boat beyond its limits. If there was any hesitance, any split-second indecision, space would reach the boat first, buffeting you with winds and flares. They rocketed towards Eteria, which was barely on the horizon, launching sideways before Kate corrected their path. Her indecisive steering was paining Jim, who wanted to desperately grab the controls from her and push her back to the navigation bench.

"What's going on?" He shouted. She was flying reckless and fast, like he would if he wasn't bound by Hollant's class rules, but she did not have it under control.

"That's an iron flag!" Kate shouted back, yanking on the steering levers to try and account for the boat starting to hit a heavy drift.

"So?"

"Ironbeard flies that flag!" She screeched, yanking the boat in the opposite direction. They overcorrected, spinning forward violently. Eteria was looming closer. At the rate Kate was flying, they'd hit the atmosphere in about five minutes. Jim suddenly understood the panic. Ironbeard was a pirate. Jim didn't have Kate's extensive knowledge of space criminals, which was why he hadn't put two and two together. Now he knew why she was careening them to the planet's surface. Her sense of duty would march her straight to her father's house where she would tell him exactly what they had seen.

The sail was starting to come loose and Jim bolted up to adjust the rigging. The boat was hit by an unexpected burst of wind from the left and Jim was thrown forward into Kate. They collided, her face slamming into his chest as he grasped at the ropes and managed to retie the sail. They hit the atmosphere much harder than they should have, heading straight down for a small body of water.

"Give me the controls, Kate," Jim said, as he ripped the levers from her hands, still somewhat on top of her. He was worried about crashing, not propriety, as he immediately slowed the boat. They hovered about a hundred feet in the air, the thrusters rattling from the unexpected shut down.

The sudden stillness was deafening. Jim felt a push on his chest. Kate was trying to move him off of her. "You're really heavy," she mumbled, trying to extricate herself. Jim pushed himself up from his forearms so that he was standing. Kate stood too. She was so close to him. Jim could see every detail of her face. He had never really noticed her eyes before, a light brown with a million flecks of grey and white. There were a few splotches on her cheeks, small red dots pulsing underneath her skin. Her face was so close to his and his heart was beating so fast. It was because the sudden stop had caught up to him, wasn't it? He had been cool and quick in their 15 minutes of pure speed, so his body was compensating. His heart was bursting into his ears, pounding a beat of pure terror. He wasn't breathing. He couldn't stop staring at Kate, who was frozen in time in front of him. She hadn't pulled her hair up today. Strands of orange had fallen into her face.

"You're…" Jim began, reaching a hand up. It seemed to take years for his hand to push her hair behind her ears. She had tilted her face up, watching him like he was watching her. Her mouth opened as he tucked the hair away, maybe to say something, but her voice never emerged. He didn't know why his body was frozen. He wasn't sure why this was happening.

Later on, while Jim was back in his dorm, he'd look out onto the lawn from his window and replay the moment a thousand times. He leaned in and kissed Kate. It seemed to break the atmosphere around them, pulling them back into a normal stream of time.

Jim Hawkins had kissed girls before. He was pretty good at it, he liked to think. There were a few different girls in high school, and a few girls at the Montressor spaceport that he'd had good times with. But it wasn't something he ever really looked to do. Kate's roommate was the type of person who had kissing on her list of recreational activities and it wasn't that way for Jim. But this moment was important, for some reason, he wasn't sure why, and he could go on kissing Kate forever.

She broke away, breathing heavily. "Jim, we need to land."

They had eased the boat into the nearest dock. It wasn't a Navy dock, but Kate knew exactly where they were. As they moored the longboat onto the docks, she tried to clear her head and focus on the task at hand. She needed to go visit her father and tell him that an Iron Flag vessel was very close to Eteria. The ship itself wasn't the danger, it was the ship's ties to a very large and dangerous smuggling gang. Kate had forgotten all about following the rules for the navigation class – this was much bigger and much more important.

But the kiss was very much on her mind.

She could still feel his hand on her face. He'd pushed her hair to the side and cupped her jaw in his palm, and pressed his lips to hers. James Hawkins had a very soft mouth.

"Where are we going?" Jim asked, as they bounded the gap onto the docks.

"My house is a few miles down the road. This is one of the civilian sailmaker's private docks. He might be willing to give us a ride."

Kate walked ahead to the small shop near the long stretch of wood planks. She rapped on the door. A small bald man opened the door.

"Miss Blake! What do I owe the honor?"

"Mr. Hentley, I need to get back to my house. There's an issue that I must discuss with my father. Would you be willing to lend me your carriage for a few hours? I will be sure my father pays you for the favor?"

Mr. Hentley raised an eyebrow. "An issue? Is everything alright, Miss Blake? I don't think I've seen you for a few years."

"Everything's fine," she said, smiling weakly. "I've been at the Interstellar Academy. I have an assignment that I need my father's assistance on. Navy business and all."

The man came out onto the stoop, shutting the door behind him. He was wearing an apron covered in grease and smelled faintly of copper. "Feel free to borrow the carriage. If you can't get it back to me, you know I'm old friends with Carnos and he'd be more than happy to return it."

"Thank you so much."

Mr. Hentley led Jim and Kate to a small stable, where a lizocimius was grazing. He led the animal to the gate and began hitching it to a small cart. "I have a lot of questions about what's going on, Miss Blake, but I'm sure Carnos will fill me in when he visits on Sunday."

"Who's Carnos?" Jim asked, as they rolled down the dirt road, past fields of lirnen vines.

"He's one of the servants at the house," Kate answered, still feeling a ghost hand cupping her face. She wanted to know why Jim had done it. It would be a good twenty minute ride to the house and she wondered if she should broach the topic with him. Jim Hawkins had kissed her. She opened her mouth, then closed it. He was holding the reins to the lizocimius, humming softly under his breath and looking at her out of the corner of his eye. She opened her mouth again, right as he did and they both blurted out two very different questions.

"Why did you kiss me?" Kate asked, right as Jim said "So what did Ironbeard do?"

The two stopped, staring, waiting for the other to answer.

"Ironbeard is in charge of a very large smuggling organization that's recently been implicated in aiding the Procyon Armada with some very high-technology weaponry." Kate finally said. "My father mentioned it last time he visited. Well, the last time before this past time. He's very dangerous."

"Your father?"

"Well, yes, but I meant Ironbeard. All of his ships fly a flag made out of iron. I have no idea why one of them is so close to Eteria, but it's definitely something he needs to know immediately. If we wait until we got back to the Academy, then go through all the proper channels, the ship will be long gone."

Jim nodded, watching the road before him. Kate wondered if she should ask her question again. She couldn't seem to get the words out of her mouth again. He probably kissed her out of the sheer relief that she was not steering the longboat anymore. She remembered what she'd told Smi at the beginning of the week – "It's not fun knowing that Jim Hawkins wants to be your friend because he pities you."

"I don't know why I kissed you," Jim said, conspicuously not looking at her. "I wanted to, I think. You're very pretty, Kate."

"You've said that before."

"Did you…not like it?"

"It was very nice. I just don't know why you did it." Kate could have kicked herself. She sounded so clinical, so unfeeling. "But I did like it."

They finished the ride in silence, keeping an unnecessary distance between their bodies sitting on the front seat and pulled up to the long path that led to Admiral Blake's mansion. It was an enormous house, with absolutely no extraneous decorations or frivolity. The house was painted a blinding white, with black shutters, and marble columns at the entrance. They left the cart and loosely tied the carriage mount to a post in front of the door. Kate squared her shoulders and took a deep breath.

"It'll be okay," Jim told her. "You have important news."

Jim did not know her father, but she tried to believe him. Kate opened the door into the imposing front hallway. There was a staircase leading up to the second floor and a singular armchair in a long hall with portraits of every monarch of the Empire for the past four hundred years. Kate marched down the hall, trying to hold onto her resolve. Her father's office-cum-library was at the very end of the hallway, right before the door that led to the servants' quarters downstairs. Kate remembered skulking in the hallway, staring the portrait of King Enniken IV while she listened to the conversations that emerged from the office. Maybe she should have married a diplomat – she was very good at snooping and remembering the things that she heard.

"Do you want me to come in with you?" Jim asked. Kate wondered if he was being polite, or if he was balking at the coming storm of Admiral Blake.

"Um, yes. You might have noticed something I didn't. You had the spyglass, remember?" She rapped on the door before she could think about it. None of the servants were about, but it was lunchtime on a Friday – the Admiral didn't usually require assistance on Fridays unless there were guests.

"Come in," his voice rumbled through the door, not nearly as angry as it normally was, probably because he didn't know who was on the other side. Kate opened the door. Her father was at his desk, writing with his gold pen – a gift from the Gallyon militia's leader from several years ago. "Katherine. What do I owe the honor?"

Mr. Hentley had said the same words, but hadn't inflected every word with a biting sarcasm. Her father hadn't even looked up from what he was working on, despite this being the first time that Kate had set foot in the house since she'd run away. Kate took a deep breath, pushing her hair back. "Father, Jim and I were out on a journey for our navigation class when we came in contact with an Iron Flag vessel. It's a small sloop and it's very close to Eteria."

Admiral Blake stopped writing and raised his head. For once in his life, he was struck speechless by something that his daughter had said. "I assume you don't have the coordinates."

Jim told him the coordinates, having remembered what was listed on the screen when he had overridden the controls. The Admiral finally noticed that his daughter wasn't alone. "Mr. Hawkins. Can you confirm that it was an Iron Flag vessel?"

"I mean, I've never seen one before, but there was a sheet of metal flying as the flag and I've never seen a civilian ship with that sort of thing. Sir."

The Admiral nodded, exhaling slowly. "I see. Kate, run upstairs and get my coat. I'll telegraph the coordinates to the nearest base and get them to send out scouts."

Kate left, and Jim stood awkwardly in front of the desk, trying to wipe out the memory of the kiss he'd just been a part of. He felt as though the Admiral could see it written all over his face.

"Hawkins, I don't have to worry about my daughter being indelicate about this, but you're a loose cannon."

"Sir?"

"This is a highly confidential situation, so I'd just like you to confirm that you will not be spreading this information about, not even to your dean. The Navy is currently engaging in a highly secret operation in regards to tracking Ironbeard, and he has a way of finding out our plans. I suspect that someone within my ranks is communicating with them."

Jim didn't say anything, unsure of what the Admiral was implying.

"Not that I suspect Captain Smollett of course, however, the more people that know about this, the more it's likely to get back to the person working for the Procyons. So, I'd just like your word that you won't spread this. I'll even write a letter for your professor that your boat glitched. I assume that will suffice?"

"Yes, sir."

"I have your word?"

Jim looked at the steely eyes of the man before him. He was so much like his daughter, though Kate did not have the edges of cruelty bulging around her. "You have my word, sir."

"Good. I assume that you were going to tell your professor that the boat glitched anyways? Those coordinates are not within the approved journey for the first hands-on assignment for advanced navigation."

"Sir?" Jim bit out, wondering how the Admiral knew that they'd strayed from the original course.

"I am in charge of the Empire's Navy, Hawkins. I sign off on the paperwork for every class, I inspect every inch of curriculum, every instructor and every assignment. I know exactly how that institution runs, to make sure that the graduates are up to snuff to serve the Queen. I'm not sure what you and my daughter were up to, but I have bigger fish to fry. Try not to fuck up like this again if you want to stay in school. I'd be more than happy to get you expelled if you continue this rule-breaking, half-assed behavior, Captain Smollett's recommendation be damned."

Jim didn't say anything, but the rage he'd learned to tamp down on his adventures to Treasure Planet was bubbling up. He'd always hated authority figures. Men that thought they knew everything and deserved the universe because they'd been arbitrarily handed power. He clenched his fists and his teeth and exhaled heavily, biting back the words in the back of his throat.

"I have your coat, Father." Kate had returned, holding out a jacket covered in medals and pins. She looked at Jim, concerned by his odd stance. He looked as though he was about to leap over the desk and physically attack her father.

"Thank you Katherine." Admiral Blake ripped a sheet of paper from a small notepad and scribbled a few lines. He signed it and dripped and pressed a small seal on the bottom. "That should satisfy Hollant. Send her my regards." He moved towards Kate and took the coat, whipping it onto his bulky frame in one fluid motion. "Katherine, this is a Navy matter, so please be discreet."

"Of course," she looked down to the floor. "A Navy matter" always meant that not a single soul was to know about it. The few times she'd been caught at the door, she'd been told to make sure that Navy matters didn't get into anyone's hands.

"And Katherine," Blake turned as he reached the door. "I'd be careful working with this Hawkins fellow. You've been dancing on the edge of rule-breaking ever since he started at the Academy. You should think how this will affect your career. That is, if you can even graduate without getting expelled for this sort of behavior. Your mother used to say that you were just like me, but I don't think I was ever such a reckless little floozy. Be better." He finished his tirade, snapping the door shut behind him.

Kate was crying at her father's desk. Admiral Blake was long gone – they'd heard the front door slam and saw him ride off on his own lizocimius. She was shaking from his final lecture. It was the first time he'd ever mentioned her mother, and it had been to condemn Kate for her recent behavior. Reckless little floozy. Those three words had ruined everything. The kiss that Jim had given her was tainted – it was the experience of a girl desperate for attention, a girl willing to bend and break the rules to get what she wanted.

"Kate," Jim whispered, who hadn't really moved from his fighting stance. "Kate."

She sighed loudly, trying to sniff her tears away. "Let's go. We need to get back before Hollant starts to worry."

They began walking out, before Jim turned back. "Hold on."

He rushed over to the desk and grabbed the glittering golden pen. He went to one of the bookcases and slipped it behind a hefty stack of naval law books. "There."

Kate started laughing through the tears. It was such a silly gesture. Her father had so many different pens, he'd find a new one, chalking it up to the maid accidentally misplacing it, or thinking that he'd put it in his coat pocket and losing it in the carriage. But Jim's bravado while hiding such a mundane object was a break in the clouds beginning to surround Kate's heart.

"Your father is very formidable," Jim said, his hands in his pockets as they rode back to Mr. Hentley's dock. Kate was driving this time. She was much better with a small cart than she was with a longboat. "He knew that I overrided the controls. He threatened to expel me."

"He does that."

"Kate, I'm sorry if I got us into any trouble. Your dad might be right about me. I have seemed to get you in quite a bit of hot water recently."

"It's not a big deal," Kate muttered. They were getting close to the dock. She wondered how late they'd be, and when Lieutenant Hollant would be worried. "He'd have said something just as awful if you weren't at the Academy. Hopefully this letter will be enough to keep Hollant from deciding to rescind her recommendation."

They returned the animal and its cart and got back into the longboat.

"I'll steer this time," Jim smirked.

Kate rolled her eyes.

"Have you ever controlled a boat in a situation that wasn't stressful?" Jim asked, as they slowly began rising. Kate was back at the navigation panels, trying to calculate if and how late they would be.

"I guess not. You'll have to teach me sometime. Like I taught you calculus."

"I feel like you'd be a better student at flying than I was at math."

"Maybe." Kate finished her calculations. They'd be a half an hour late. Since they hadn't rotated around the planet and had doubled their speed after seeing the sloop, they were still fairly close to being on time. She showed the calculations to Jim, who nodded approvingly.

Once they were drifting on a flare towards the Academy's planet, Jim stood up and moved over to Kate's bench. He tapped a few screens and typed for a bit. "Got to put the controls back in place or the letter from your dad will be useless."

As Jim moved back to the steering levers, he brushed his hand over the top of Kate's head. While Jim would revisit the kiss for hours when they got back to their dorms that night, the gentle touch of her mess of hair was what stayed with Kate. Something was blooming throughout her chest and shoulders, a strange warmth that she wasn't really familiar with. Kate had never truly felt at home somewhere, but that small touch made her wonder if that was what it felt like.


	8. Chapter Eight: In Which Katherine and James Become Embroiled in Mischief

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Grad school and work have been super hectic, but I'll be graduating soon!!! I hope you like this chapter - we're getting to some of the more exciting stuff that I have planned out. As always, let me know what you think! Thank you for the kudos and comments. :)

Chapter Eight: In Which Katherine and James Get Embroiled In Mischief

"This. Blows."

Plott was idly dragging a scraper on the side of the Centurion, turning the dead, crusted barnacles into a fine powder that blew away in a cloud of bronze evil. "Blake, this is entirely your fault."

"It is not," Kate mumbled, scraping much more efficiently. She had cleared about a six foot square of the ship and not a single reddish outline remained. "If you hadn't been so loud in port, Commander Shiast wouldn't have noticed you, and then us."

Jim didn't say anything. He was on a different skiff, near enough for him to hear the two halfheartedly argue, but not quite close enough for him to engage. He had much more experience scrubbing down ship hulls. Not only had Silver worn him ragged several months ago, but he'd scraped smaller sloops on the docks for money during high school.

It had been three months since he and Kate had seen the Iron Flag vessel. Hollant had bought the note from the Admiral and gave them top marks for "remaining cool-headed in a time of crisis." Jim and Kate had resumed their regular schedules and avoided adventure from there on out. Until the week previously.

\---

It had started like any Friday – Jim, Kate and their friends had wrapped up their studies, Jim sitting slightly closer to Kate than any platonic friend would. They hadn't had time for fun recently. Hollant's praise for them had spread to other instructors who seemed to begin expecting more from the pair and finals for the first semester were just around the corner. They spent night after night in the library, just like Jim's first week. But rather than Kate walking him through every assignment, the two collaborated, sharing notes and brushing hands under the table.

Jim and Kate weren't alone in the library most nights. Half of their dormitory was also desperately studying, especially those looking to join the Navy, and students were hard-pressed to find available tables. That particular Friday found the duo at a table with Annick, Plott and Dalia. All five were desperately trying to make sense of a complex chapter of calculus – their teacher had announced that learning the equations weren't enough anymore, and that students were to explain how each problem would apply to spacing.

"It's like the math wasn't enough, now he's making us write essays." Dalia said. She was an outspoken girl from Proteus 9 that couldn't have been more than four and a half feet tall. Her white hair hung flat like two curtains about to close the window to her face. "I hate Dr. Morriben. This is ridiculous."

Annick nodded in agreement, while Plott lazily flipped through the textbook, his many fingers marking several chapters for reference. Kate kept her gaze on the homework. She finally seemed to fit in – no one had teased her in weeks – and she was content staying on the sidelines of this group of people. It was much more enjoyable than having to avoid them.

"Blake, what did you get for seven?" Plott demanded, winking at her as Jim jolted at the loud voice.

"The answer or the application?"

"Answer. If it's the number I had first, then I definitely understand how it applies to repairing a ship's boilers. If not…"

"3 times 10 to the 3.57th power."

Plott cursed. "Then how in hell does it apply?"

Kate shrugged. She hadn't gotten to the essay part; she was just doing the equations. She glanced over at Jim who was staring at his paper of equations, silently mouthing numbers. They'd kissed twice since their navigation class mishap. A few days after their trip to Eteria, Jim had suggested that they study in the astronomy tower. Rather than poring over their notes, he'd opened the hatch and they'd sat next to each other, watching the stars and holding hands. Before they walked back to Corventron he'd kissed her. Rather than the sudden, desperate time break, this kiss was long and slow. He'd put his hands on her back and pulled her in, as she'd tilted her face up to meet his.

The second kiss had been two days ago. He'd come up to her dorm, unannounced and asked if she wanted to walk to port for food. Kate had pulled him into her room and violently kissed him. She wasn't sure why she'd did it – she had been in a foul mood that day. There had been news that her father was going to be involved in the selection of the midshipmen candidates and as she'd angrily stared at the wall in her room, the vision of her escape being denied to her played out in her mind's eyes. When Jim walked through the door, she flew at him, desperate for some kind of distraction. They hadn't gotten any food, for Jim stayed in her dorm for hours.

Neither of them really talked about why they were kissing each other. But Kate preferred it that way, for now. She felt as if she brought it up, it would disappear forever.

"Earth to Kate?" Annick snapped his finger in front of her face. "What in the world are you doing? Drifting off to sleep?"

"Oh, I was just…I'm a little lost," she said, trying to pull herself out of the daydream of kissing James Hawkins in the library stacks.

"Blake's lost? We're hopeless," Dalia smirked, crumpling up yet another failed attempt at the final equation. "I say we drown our sorrows and go shoot things in the practice yard."

"That's against the rules," Plott was a little more careful toeing the line of school policies now that he was on very thin ice. "I'd rather not get expelled."

"It's not against the rules if you have permission from the Commander." Dalia flipped her hair over her shoulder and began putting her books in her bag. "I thought we all had access to the armory?"

"I don't," Plott said, frowning.

"I'm not surprised."

"We could just abandon Plott and go shoot things," Jim grinned, circling an answer on his paper before shoving the equations into his textbook. "Who needs him?"

"Hey!"

"Just saying. I'd have more fun practicing my aim than I would keeping you out of trouble down at the port." Jim stood up, his hand inconspicuously resting on Kate's shoulders.

"Don't be like this," Plott scoffed.

"Don't be what?" Kate jumped in, her heart racing a little bit as she got the chance to rib at someone who'd always taken that chance on her. "Tired of keeping you out of trouble?" she laughed so that she didn't seem too mean.

"It's late," Annick said, "Maybe if Plott doesn't touch any weapons he'd wouldn't get in trouble if we did run into a professor?"

"Ever the diplomat, Annick," Dalia lightly punched the quieter Anterran on the arm. "If you keep being so chivalrous I might go to the promenade with you after finals. Come on guys, let's go shoot things and get into trouble."

"What did Dalia mean by a 'promenade'?" Jim whispered to Kate as the group made their way down to the armory. Dalia was leading the charge down the hill with the other two boys tailing after her. Jim and Kate brought up the rear, just far enough to be out of earshot. It was dusk, with the two suns on the horizon, burning a dark brown, surrounded by the wisps of space.

"There's a celebration at the New Year. Right after finals end. It's a big dinner and dance and…all that." Kate didn't mention that she'd never gone to the party. Her father always was there to give a speech and announce any important awards or honors. She found that faking some sort of illness could keep her in her dorm with few questions from anyone.

"So…" Jim didn't say anything for a minute, looking ahead at the group in front of them. They had gotten to the armory and were entering the code on the door to the shed that held the less dangerous weapons. He stopped about twenty feet back. Kate stopped as well, curious as to where Jim was going with the conversation. "So…are you going with me?"

Kate blinked. Her stomach had just dropped out from underneath her, not unlike when she was plummeting with Jim towards Eteria. "I…yes."

"You sure?"

"Yes." They'd be announcing the midshipmen position at the promenade and Kate couldn't think of a better way of finding out than with Jim nearby. Whether or not her father meddled with her chances, her friend would be at her side to either congratulate her or console her.

"Stop flirting with Blake already Jim!" Dalia shouted as the door to the shed flew open. "Come get a gun!"

"Cool." Jim said. Kate wasn't sure if he was referring to her acceptance or to the fact that they'd be shooting revolvers at targets. She decided that it was both and followed him into the practice field. The shed they'd opened was the one that the officer in charge of teaching them weaponry kept a small amount of practice weapons that could do very little harm. Rubber bullets and poorly charged electricity were their only options. Kate picked up a small pistol and loaded the cylinder with ammo.

"If you can outshoot me, Blake, I'll take back everything bad I've ever said about you," Dalia said, loading her weapon as well. "Best of five."

The Proteus 9 girl was eating her words as Kate leveled the pistol, took a deep breath and fired five shots rapidly at the straw targets at the edge of the field. Red paint blistered out as she hit the center of the target five times.

Annick let out a low whistle. "Dalia, you can't even try. Blake's already won."

Dalia still tried, but only landed three of her shots. "Bullshit. I'd like to see her pull it off again. Hawkins, you've got to be a good shot."

Jim held up his hands. "How many times do I have to tell you guys that I didn't go around just blasting pirates out of the sky?"

"But you're a good shot, right?"

Jim sighed and raised the pistol, holding it sideways with one hand. He was much more methodical than Kate, firing the gun, dropping it, then raising it for the next shot. His eyes had zoomed onto the center of the target and not a single shot missed. "Come on Kat. Beat that." He grinned playfully, and looked right into her eyes. Kate shook out the image of pushing him against the door of her room to kiss him on the mouth from her mind and reloaded the gun.

"What happens if we tie?"

"We'll figure it out later." He was still grinning.

"Stop flirting with each other," Dalia sniffed. "Blake, just shoot already. I want to see if you just fluked out."

Kate could feel everyone watching her. The air was becoming cool with the night and only the tips of the suns were visible in the far reaching sky at the end of the field. She cocked the pistol back and squared her shoulders. Her ears pounded as she fired again, in rapid succession, never letting her eyes drop from the center of the target.

All five bullets hit.

Dalia let out a curse, amazed. "Well, I think we're done here."

"What about the tiebreaker? What about Annick?" Jim asked. They'd only spent about a half-hour down in the field. Curfew wasn't for a few hours.

"I'm not anywhere close to any of you, not even Dalia," Annick wasn't even holding a weapon. "When are we going to port? We all know we're going to end up down there, so let's just go already."

\----

They were all at The Silver Fish. The group made their way through several glasses of cider and platters of mashed purps as they all joked about classes and classmates. There was an accordionist and a fiddler playing rowdy songs in the center of the pub. Someone from a table in the back hollered for them to play A Young Man and A Maid. The group laughed at the bawdy lyrics as they swigged more cider. Jim wondered for a second if they might be overdoing themselves, before shaking the thought away and slipping his arm around Kate's waist.

"Let's dance!" he shouted. Kate's face was flushed and she was smiling brightly. It was amazing, Jim thought to himself, how far out of her shell that she had come recently. She wasn't even wearing her uniform – rather, a dark purple vest that gloriously clashed with her garish orange curls which tumbled around her as if someone had dropped skeins of yarn from the sky onto her head. Jim couldn't keep his eyes off of her and the two began twirling on the dance floor, stamping their boots to the rhythm of the new raunchy song that was straining out of the accordion.

Dalia and Annick began dancing too, performing much more intricate steps on the old wooden floor. Plott remained at the table, hollering to the two pairs whenever they neared the table.

"We'll have to learn how to dance better if we want to upstage them after final exams," Jim laughed. Kate beamed and tried to emulate the complicated twirl that Dalia had just performed. It did not go nearly as well, and she exploded forward into Jim's arms. His heart beat faster as her frame pressed up against his for a split second. He still didn't quite know what was going on with himself whenever he looked at her – it felt like his heart was expanding so quickly that it was bursting his rib bones. Acting entirely on impulse, Jim brushed his lips to hers, tasting the cider they'd both drank. Plott whooped from the table.

They all continued dancing until the barkeep called out the last hours. The large grandfather clock in the corner was bonging out a number that was worrisome for the students who had made somewhat of an effort to stay out of trouble for the night. Panting, the four dancers returned to the table. Plott was far closer to drunk than they were, for he had not exercised out the alcohol.

"Thish was…fun…why we have to go back?"

"Come on, man," Jim said, dropping Kate's hand to heft the skinny blue boy up. "We've got to get back to Corventron. It's almost past curfew."

The bar's lights were dimming and those who were staying for the night were leaving to the rooms down below in the ship. The five students began trudging out towards into the foggy night. It had gotten much colder than it had been when they were shooting in the practice fields. Dalia and Annick were rushing ahead again while Kate tried to slow her usual quick pace to stay with Jim who was still shouldering Plott.

"C'mon, Jim. Jim. Jim we have to go back. Jim, I left my wallet there." Plott was trying to break away and turn back towards the pub. "I have so many crowns in there. I can't lose them. My parents don't have enough to send me any more for a while. Jim. Jim, c'mon."

"You didn't leave your wallet," Jim sighed, stopped. He reached into Plott's jacket pocket to pull out the wallet and soothe the boy who'd drank far too much cider. Unfortunately, Plott was right. The wallet was not on his person at all.

"Goddamnit."

Kate looked at him. "I can go back and grab it. I'll be fast."

Jim stared back. "Aren't you cold?" Her vest sleeves barely touched her elbow.

"Well, yes, but…" Kate shrugged. The Academy wasn't too far – she could survive for the fifteen minute walk back to the dorms.

Jim shook Plott less-than-gently. "Plott. I'm going to get your wallet. You go with Kate back to the dorms. We've got to get back in case they check rooms tonight."

"I said I could get it," Kate said, crossing her arms in front of her to warm herself. Her arms were prickling with gooseflesh. Jim shrugged off his coat, his father's coat, the coat that he wore almost every time that he wasn't wearing his uniform and slipped it around her shoulders.

"Kate, curfew ended just a few minutes ago. If you make it back, you'll be in very little trouble if you even get caught. You've got a bit more riding on your record than I do. Take Plott back, I'll catch up in like ten minutes."

Kate sighed loudly, despite being touched by the gesture and pulled Plott by the elbow. "Come on you ass."

Plott meekly followed, placated by Jim's promise to get his wallet. He let Kate lead him up the road towards the massive towers of the Academy.

\---

Jim knocked on the door to the inn. He wasn't sure if it was locked, but he wanted to be courteous. He remembered visitors harassing his poor mother at midnight and knew better than to engage in that sort of behavior.

No one answered the door. Jim sighed and slowly turned the knob. The door opened to an empty room, filled with tables and benches and a single candle alight on the bar. The small flame cast creepy shadows on the walls of the barroom. Jim crept quietly over to the table they'd been sitting at and sure enough, there was a small wallet packed to the brim with different coins.

"When are you going to let us move on the Centurion?" A silky voice made every bone in Jim's spine straighten. Where had he heard that voice before? It was a deep bass that was twisted out of sticky spiderweb fiber. "We have been waiting, Admiral."

"You'll move when I tell you to move, and not a goddamn second before," a gravelly voice hissed. Jim knew exactly where he had heard that voice before – it had told him that he was a loose cannon that couldn't be trusted just a few months before. Jim raised himself to the balls of his feet and silently slid over to the room that the voices were coming from – there was an open door right next to the kitchen. He couldn't see inside without giving himself away.

"Admiral, Ironbeard is an impatient man," the silky voice warned.

"And I could easily shoot you and him the next time we meet and be regarded as a war hero. Tell Ironbeard that. When the Procyon Peace Treaty is signed, we'll move."

"What was that?" the first voice whispered. Jim felt the floorboard creak underneath him. He heard chairs being pushed back. "If that barkeep is lurking around again, I'll make it look like an accident. A horrible little accident."

Jim bolted. He didn't care how noisy he was, he knew he had to leave immediately. He'd realized exactly who the first voice belonged to and couldn't think straight so he ran.

Scroop, the Vikhensian spider, should have been dead.

\----

A week later, he was scrubbing barnacles off the side of the Centurion. Commander Shiast had caught Jim, Kate and Plott outside the dorm trying to sneak in after curfew and told them that their punishment for such an infraction was a day of manual labor for the Navy. They'd been dropped at a Naval base in Eteria and instructed to clean the barnacles off of the newly built ship that had just returned from a very short test flight.

"Your drunken shouting was what roused the Commander. If you'd've just let Jim pick the dorm lock in silence, we wouldn't be in trouble."

"Miss Admiral," Plott scoffed, though he seemed to be using the term much more affably than he had before. "Can we just get this done? The Commander said she wouldn't put this on our records, which keeps me from expulsion and you two from losing your spots as the best little teacher's pets on campus."

Kate made a face. Jim sighed quietly. He didn't know why the Admiral of her Majesty's Navy would be conspiring with a supposed-to-be-dead pirate, or what they were even conspiring about, but he couldn't bring himself to tell her what he'd heard. What if she didn't believe him? What if she got mad at him? She didn't love her father, that was for sure, but he had no idea if she'd believe that her father was actively work with pirates for…he wasn't sure what for. Jim scraped off another barnacle and chucked it onto the ground beneath the skiffs they were sitting in. The space creature's dried blood colored carcass fluttered to the ground and Jim's heart sank with it.


	9. In Which Katherine and James Visit the Benbow Inn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! This chapter is very...domestic. There's quite a bit more, but I didn't want to end up posting a 10k chapter, so I cut off the part that I'd edited and am working on finalizing the second part (which will provide more context to the interesting conversation that Jim overheard.) Tell me what you think! I hope you like it, I know that nothing too exciting has happened yet, but I'll make up for it later, I promise.

Chapter Nine: In Which Katherine and James Visit the Benbow Inn

Kate was in the dormitory common area, sifting through her notes. The setting suns were shading the dusty room like a dimming oven and Kate stretched herself out, taking up the entire armchair, limbs askew. It was the last day of classes before the solstice break – eleven days of rest before final exams. Most of her fellow dormers that lived close to the Academy had hitched a ferry ride home to visit family and study in the comfort of their own homes. Smi had just left, wrapping her tentacles around Kate in a rushed hug, and, ever the gossip, had cheerily announced that she'd seen Roesa leaving Plott's room tearfully earlier that day. Kate shook her head and chuckled. Smi was incorrigible. She'd recently taken to staying out of their dorm on Wednesday nights so that "Kate could have the place to herself…and any…adventuring, handsome spacer boy that wanted to drop by."

Kate planned on staying in the dorms, as usual, for the solstice break. She could finish figuring out how to successfully ace her engineering exam, which was supposed to be her alone in a room with a broken engine and one hour to fix it. The peace and quiet would be nice. Eleven days alone, and she'd overheard one of the professors say that Admiral Blake would only just be able to make the final celebration of the semester due to some assignment of having to take Crown Prince Edward on some diplomatic visit. She wouldn't have any unannounced visits – it would be heaven. She exhaled her anxieties away and rotated in the chair so that her feet were up on the back and her head dangled from the seat. Her hair brushed at the grimy floor beneath her and she held her book out in front of her. The blood was rushing to her ears; she wouldn't stay in the position long, but it was fun. It was what a student who didn't care would do.

Kate heard strong footsteps hammering down the stair. She tilted the book so that she could see who was leaving the dorm next. An upside-down Jim Hawkins looked at her. He was dressed exactly the way he was when she had picked him up from the spaceport, his duffel bag slung carelessly over his shoulder.

"Heading out for the week?" she asked brightly, trying to extricate herself from her reading position by hefting her upper body from the floor to the chair. The impromptu sit-up wasn't well-executed but it brought her far enough off the floor that she could slide sideways and tumble off the chair. She wiped her hands on her clothes and stood up.

"Guess you were tangled up in a good book," Jim said, setting his bag on the ground.

Kate groaned.

"I'm heading back to Montressor for a few days," he said, answering the original question. "I haven't seen Mom for a while…and I'm real bad at remembering to write her."

Kate nodded, reaching out to give him a hug good-bye. "I'll be here."

"You don't go home?...Sorry. That was a dumb question."

"It's fine. I get to be by myself. It's nice. Sometimes Dalia stays behind, so maybe I can visit her if I get lonely, now that we're friendlier."

Jim grimaced. "She left this morning right after navigation. Didn't you hear her? She's visiting her aunt on Eteria."

"Oh. Well, it's not like I haven't spent breaks by myself here," Kate shrugged it off and finally managed to wrap her arms around Jim. He was so much taller than she was – she'd buried her head into his chest, gripping the fabric of the jacket on his back. Jim Hawkins rested his chin on the top of her hair. "It'll be fine."

"What do you do for the solstice though?"

Kate looked up at him, trying not to laugh at his concern. He still didn't quite understand. Despite his father leaving, Jim had always had someone in his family that loved him. He didn't realize what it meant to truly have no one in the world that was family. "I'll probably go out and watch the meteor shower. Or work on engineering. Or shoot targets. I'll be fine." She repeated.

"Kate…" he trailed off, staring down at her. She smiled, trying to show that she really was just fine with eleven days to herself. Sure, it would be nice to have a family to return to. But Kate wasn't going to spend her break from classes in a melancholic stupor. Jim touched her face, his fingers sliding down her jaw. The hairs on her back rose and she stood a little straighter. He pushed downwards and their lips met, gently, for a split second, before he drew away.

"Come with me."

"What?"

"Come with me! The Benbow always has a few spare rooms! My mother wouldn't mind at all. I think Dr. Delbert and Captain Amelia will drop in during the week. And you can stay in your room by yourself if you want to study all week. But you'll be able to have people to spend the solstice with."

"Jim…I…" Kate was going to say that she couldn't impose on his family like that, that she was fine, but what came out instead was, "I haven't even packed."

"Then let's go!" He wrapped his hand around her wrist and playfully dragged her towards the stairs. "We'll pack in record time."

The two ran up the three flights of stairs to her dorm and flung the door open. Kate bent down and crawled under her bunk to pull out the bag that she'd shoved all of her worldly possessions into three years ago. What few clothes she had were flung into the bag, along with some toiletries and all of her textbooks.

"Hold on," she said, pulling open another drawer. She balled up a handful of underthings and carried the now-unfolded wad of unmentionables to her bag that Jim was holding. He pointedly looked away, his face a little redder than usual. "Okay, let's go."

Jim didn't say anything for a second, then shook his head back and forth, seemingly trying to come back to reality. Kate wasn't sure what was bothersome about underthings – everyone wore them, to her knowledge, but she forgot about it as they clattered down the stairs again.

"I don't have a ferry ticket," she said, breathlessly as reached the bottom of the staircase.

"Don't worry about it," Jim said, "It's a ferry – they'll always let on more people if they can pay a few coins."

Kate dug in her pockets and found that she did have a few coins there, so she grinned. "Okay. Let's go to the Benbow Inn."

\----

"I've never been on a ferry ride," Kate whispered to Jim as they walked across the planks to get on the crowded barge.

"Never? Did you ever leave Eteria before the Academy?"

"A few times. But my father has...you know…access to the whole Naval fleet." She shrugged awkwardly.

"Welcome to the life of a commoner," Jim ruffled her hair and pulled her to the edge of the ferry's railings. The flat ship began sailing upward, cruising slowly towards the speck in the sky that was Montressor. "We'll have to walk to the Benbow too. No carriage rides for us this time."

"I've walked before." Kate italicized as the artificial gravity kicked in. On the smaller vessels she'd ridden before, the safety measure had been seamless, but for a much larger ship, the gravity was a hefty pull. She lost her balance, windmilling down to the ferry's floor. Jim laughed, throwing his head back. "Have you really? It doesn't look like it."

"Oh, please." She stood up. "It was just about a graceful as dancing with you."

"You're still going to the promenade with me, so who's laughing now."

Kate didn't say anything. They were truly in space now. It might have been the thinner air, but she couldn't breathe normally at the sight of the darkness enveloping them, the navy blue blanket lit up with stars wrapping around the ferry. It was a new experience to be on a ship where she wasn't desperately flying for her life, or waiting in a cabin on the orders of her father. It was beautiful. She slid her hand down the railing until it rested on top of Jim's. There was that feeling of home again. She felt like she was going home.

\----

Jim looked over to Kate, who was staring up in wonder at the stars. Her hand was gripping his on the railing and he had to smile. He remembered the first time that he'd truly flown, beyond his solar surfing exploits. That first liftoff on the Legacy had been life changing. He still hadn't told her about what he'd seen at the inn a few weeks ago. He wasn't losing sleep over it, but he found himself going over the conversation when he was alone sometimes. He still wasn't exactly sure how a dead pirate could suddenly be alive, and working with the Empire's Navy, but he figured that Admiral Blake, for all his many faults, wouldn't let a pirate just waltz onto the Academy and murder a student. Besides, Jim had assured himself that the Admiral was probably just pretending to work with Scroop to get closer to Ironbeard. Kate often talked about how her father hated pirates – it was probably a long, convoluted scheme that would end in the death of one of the more infamous smugglers currently working in space.

"What are you staring at?" Kate asked, suddenly not looking at the sky.

"I'm just thinking," Jim avoided the question. "When you become the captain of some fancy Navy ship, you'll have to hire me as your first mate."

"I figured you would want to be captain."

"I just want to rattle the stars," he looked out as the speck of his home planet became a bit larger, about the size of his thumbnail. "And I think if I was the first mate on your ship, it'd be pretty easy to do. Besides, you'll need someone who can actually fly the thing."

Kate shook her head, laughing. "Okay, if ever I get to captain a ship, you'll be the first spacer I call. We can rattle the stars together. But that's going to be so far in the future."

"I dunno. I've learned that time has a way of catching up faster than you think."

They began plotting their ascension to the top ranks of the military, Kate giggling as Jim went off on a tangent where they were both undercover in a band of pirates, 'accidentally' being so incompetent that the pirate ship couldn't successfully smuggle any weapons. He liked making her laugh, seeing her eyes crunch up.

The ferry ride stretched on for another hour or so before it began descending. They docked and Jim picked up both of the bags. Kate followed him onto the small dock; instead of taking the ferry to the spaceport then hitching a ride to the planet, they'd caught the one ferry that took them directly to Montressor proper.

Jim was excited. He was going home. He was enjoying the Academy – he felt like he was a different person, someone who had a future, someone who wasn't a complete disappointment to his mother. But what was the point of all of that if he couldn't go home and show off a little? And he had gotten to bring home Kate, the girl he couldn't seem to get out of his head most days. She trudged up the road with him, nodding when he told her that it was only a twenty minute walk.

The two cut an interesting picture to a shopkeeper who was closing up for dinner as they poked their way up the road. She was a people-watcher, so she stopped at the window of her shop to examine the two as she adjusted the display of flowers behind the glass. She could've sworn that the boy, with his tousled hair, oversized pants and earring was that troubled Hawkins kid. The only thing that was missing was his old facial expression, a dark glare with furrowed eyebrows. This Hawkins-look-alike was grinning like a kid, and moving his hands back and forth as he talked to the girl next to him. The shopkeeper had never seen the girl before; she was a bit smaller than her walking partner, with a cloud of orange hair and an upturned canid nose.

"Well, I'll be," a voice breathed next to the shopkeeper. Her last customer of the afternoon was a Miss Hellingbone, a Loppytonian young woman who had been looking for a new skirt. "Is that Sarah Hawkins' boy?"

"Looks like it," the store owner laughed. "And seemingly out of trouble, too. Will wonders never cease?"

Jim and Kate had no idea of the two women spying on them from the shop window as they started to reach the edge of the small mining town they'd landed in. Kate saw a large cottage built precariously on a platform that stretched over one of the various chasms that dotted the Montressor landscape.

"Is that the Benbow?" she pointed. Jim was slightly behind, huffing from having to carry two bags.

"Sure is," he said. It may have been bigger and better built, but it was still home. He broke into a sprint. "C'mon! Last one there has to do dishes for the night."

Kate ran after him, kicking up dust behind her. They both sped towards the inn, skidding sideways as they hit the inn's platform.

"We have to stop getting ties in these competitions," she gasped, laughing. He nodded, and stared at the door in front of them. It was a Thursday, a few hours before dinner, so the inn looked fairly empty. He took a big breath before reaching his hand out to knock the door.

\----

Sarah Hawkins was sweeping up the first floor before the dinner rush hit. B.E.N. had left with Dr. Doppler to help with fixing some sort of navigation system at the local college's physics department. She wasn't expecting anyone for a few days – she hadn't heard anything from Jim in weeks and figured that he would make his way back the day before the solstice on Tuesday.

There was a sharp rap on the front door. It was a hefty knock, from a confident hand and Sarah stopped knocking the dustpan into the bin. It sounded so much like Leland's knock, the strong pound he would make in the middle of the night when he'd come home unexpectedly and she'd locked the door.

Was he back? Had he thought he could come back to stay, despite the things he had said, the promises that he'd broken? She put the broom up against the wall, not paying attention as it fell to the ground with a clatter, walking to the door cautiously. She turned the knob slowly, taking a deep breath.

There, on the stoop of the door was her son, smiling nervously, holding the hand of a half-canid girl that looked even more worried than Sarah had been just a few seconds ago. Sarah's shoulders dropped in relief and she pulled her son to her.

"James Pleiades Hawkins, tell me next time you're coming home," she scolded, releasing him and turning to the girl next to him. "And tell me when you're bringing a guest!"

"Sorry, Mom," Jim grimaced, holding the back of his neck, suddenly awkward. "This is, uh, Kate. I mean, Katherine Blake. She's in my year at the Academy and she didn't have a place to go for the Solstice."

Sarah pursed her lips, trying her best to look disapprovingly at her son but failing. He'd brought another thing home, another sad being drifting through the galaxy, begging her to let him keep it. She should have known that eventually he would have brought girls home, in exactly the same manner. She smiled at Kate. "I'm Sarah. It's nice to meet you, Kate dear."

The girl smiled back, revealing crooked teeth and uncomfortably extended a hand. Sarah brushed the hand away and pulled Kate in for a hug as well. "You'll have a wonderful time at the inn for Solstice."

"Jim said it was fun," she said. Her voice was clipped and quiet, as if she was trying to be brusque. The girl was failing miserably. She was an odd mix of eagerness, anxiety and snobbery.

"It is," Sarah looked to the bags on the stoop. "Why don't you take Kate's things to the spare room on the top floor, Jim? She can come with me to the kitchen and have some dinner."

"I don't get dinner?" Jim moaned.

"You'll get dinner. Show some hospitality to your friend!"

"Fine," Jim picked the bags back up and stomped through the front room to the stairs at the back of the room. Sarah heard him thump up the many flights of stairs to try and find the spare room.

"Now, Kate, let's get you some food," she said, leading the girl towards the kitchen. Sarah tied her apron on and pulled a stone bowl from the door-less cupboards in the larger-than-life cooking space. The Zirellian jellyworm stew was simmering on the oven, sending wafts of a delicious earthy smell throughout the room. Sarah set the windows to show a bright field of flowers and pulled a ladle out of a drawer.

"So," she began, motioning Kate to sit on one of the stools by the long counter that wrapped around the back wall. "When did you and Jim become friends?"

Kate blushed. "Um, I helped him settle into the Academy. We do homework in the library a few times a week. I help him with calculus and he helps me with engineering."

Sarah was not a dumb woman. She saw the blood rush into Kate's face and turned to the pot of stew to hide a smile. She ladled the soup into the bowl, feeling the warmth through the stone and tried to arrange an innocuous expression before sweeping over to the counter and putting the dish in front of the orange-haired lass.

"That's very kind of you to help Jim," Sarah said. "How long have you two been beaus?"

Kate's face was the color of the sun, and she sputtered violently, the mouthful she had tried to swallow bursting back into the bowl and spoon she'd brought near her face. "Oh, we're not…I mean…we're…" Kate couldn't get an answer out.

Sarah moved to the girl and rested a hand on her shoulder. "It's quite obvious, dear."

Kate only nodded, wiping her mouth, very obviously not looking at Sarah. The kitchen door slammed open as Jim burst in. "I smell stew!" He took in the sight of his mother standing near Kate as he busied himself with getting his own dinner ready. "What are you bullying Kate about?"

Sarah couldn't help herself. "I only asked her how long you two have been beaus."

Jim's reaction was exactly the same. Sarah had to stop asking these questions after the teenagers had taken bites of the stew. Unlike Kate, the consequences of Jim's stew sputter flew onto the floor. "Mom! That's…why are you…what kind of question is that?"

"What kind of answer is that, James? Now wipe up that mess before you eat anything else."

\----

Jim waited to hear his mother's door shut. Her room was right next to his, on the floor underneath where Kate was staying. He had a plan. It was a very bad plan, but romantic feelings for the girl whose father wants nothing more than to arrest you can make boys do very stupid things. He slowly rose from his bed, trying very hard not to hit a creaky floorboard – he was not familiar with the new Benbow, and knew very little about what traps lay under his feet.

There was not a bathroom on the floor Jim's room was on – at least, for his use. There was one attached to his mother's room, but he wasn't going to barge into his mother's privacy to brush his teeth. Which was his excuse if he was caught in the next few minutes. He shut his door silently, jimmying the lock so that unless you really shook the handle, it would appear locked to any would-be intruder. Glancing at his mother's door, which was thankfully shut, he snuck up the stairs, far more gracefully than he normally would.

Dinner had been hectic at the Benbow. Kate had politely offered to help, and Jim's mother never denied free help. The three of them kept glasses full and plates delivered on time. He'd had no time to spend with Kate, as he'd been up to his elbows in dishwater and she'd been sweeping the floor. Sarah had shown her to the guest room and sent Jim to bed, obviously keeping them from getting into trouble too early on in the short holiday. Unfortunately for his mother, Jim was ignoring all sensibilities that night.

He tapped on the door, barely ticking his fingernail on the wood. He hoped that Kate could hear the near-silent noise that requested entry. Sure enough, he heard feet padding to the door. Quickly breathing into his hand to make sure he'd brushed his teeth thoroughly, Jim tousled his hair and straightened his pajamas.

The door creaked open. Kate peeked out, eyes wide. She was wearing a blue nightgown without any sleeves and a skirt that touched the floor. "What is it?" she whispered.

"Can I come in?"

She widened the door for him to come in. It was a small room, with a four poster bed and a closet full of the inn's spare quilts and sheets. Jim shut the door quietly and turned the lock before looking sheepish.

"Are you glad you came home with me?"

Kate walked over to the bed and sat down. "I am. Why are we whispering?"

"I, um…don't want my mom to hear me sneaking up to your room."

Kate covered her face with her hands, silently laughing. She motioned Jim to come sit next to her, which he did, gingerly lowering himself so that he was stretched across the far side of the bed that touched the wall. "Why'd you sneak up to my room?"

"I thought that…I mean. What I mean to say is…You remember that time in your dorm? The time that…" Jim trailed off, unable to get out to the words. He was thinking of their third kiss, the time he'd walked into her room in Corventron and they had necked long enough to overshoot his dinner plans by at least an hour.

Kate seemed to think he was getting at something else, because her eyes narrowed. "When my father walked in?"

"No! No, not like that…I mean…I just thought that…" Jim stammered. This was why he thought that he might truly care for Katherine Blake. The other girls Jim had kissed were a challenge, girls who were fun to sneak out with, girls who had a similar agenda of rage and misbehavior. This was different – Jim couldn't get a single word out without stuttering like Dr. Doppler around Captain Amelia. "Just lie down next to me." He blurted out, a little louder than he intended.

Kate regarded him momentarily, before conceding. She stretched out next to him, facing him. He tried not to look away from her face – her nightdress had tangled around her legs, displaying slightly more skin above the knee than was appropriate for modest company. "Jim, you still haven't told me why you snuck up here."

"I snuck up to do this," he whispered, kissing her nose. She blinked rapidly. It was cute how every time he displayed some kind of affection that she was surprised, amazed, even though she had been affectionate to him before. Jim wanted to keep her mind in a state of wonder, in a state of peace, rather than the worry that she drifted into every day.

The two of them shared a kiss that was far more chaste than it could have been, given the circumstances. Kate's eyes continued to flutter, as she smiled blearily. "Your mother is very kind, Jim."

"Why wouldn't she be?"

"I don't…I don't know what it's like to have a parent like her. You know? She cares about you, and doesn't bother with hiding it, and she just…I just showed up on her doorstep and she let me in and gave me food and let me stay here. You didn't tell her anything about me and she still just let me in with open arms."

"That's what mothers do. You told me that you didn't know anything about your mother…I think she would've been just like you."

"A disappointment to my father?"

Jim laughed, but not unkindly. "No. Smart and nice, and maybe a little prickly, but still very kind."

Kate's eyelids lowered before she shook herself back to the land of the wakeful. "That's so nice. Jim, you're very nice." She burrowed closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder. Jim kissed the top of her head and tucked her into the crook of his side. "I was very mean to you when I met you. I thought you would join in with all the others and blow all the professors away and I'd just be left in the dust."

"Kat. Even at my worst I wouldn't've done that. I got in trouble at school so much for fighting bullies and back-talking mean teachers…"

"That's why you're very nice," Kate mumbled, drifting off to sleep. Jim held her, his heart thumping on the sides of his ribs, beating a pain into his lungs. This girl had had such little kindness in her life. He would change that. It was in that moment that Jim started drifting off too, and right before he made the final jump into sleep he realized something. He loved Katherine Blake.

\----

The solstice arrived a few days later, with a bright sun and chilly wind. Jim had spent the last few nights in his own room – though he and Kate kept finding plenty of time to study or slip out into the woods nearby – and felt as though there was something that he should remember, something important was gnawing at the back of his mind and it danced out of his reach any time he tried to grasp it.

He'd run down to the shops the day before, with three five note bills tucked in his jacket and uncomfortably walked into the store of the shopkeeper who'd spied on him during his arrival. The shop was small, but well lit, and distinctly organized so that hundreds of small pieces of jewelry, handkerchiefs and other assortments of ladies' items were displayed on neat shelves.

"Can I help you, sir?" the woman, who Jim recognized as Mrs. Linder, came out of the back room as soon as the bell on the door signaled a customer's presence. "Oh. Hawkins. What are you doing here?"

"I'm looking for a present," Jim said, resolutely. "Two presents. I need something for my mother and something for a friend."

Mrs. Linder eyed him. "What do you have to pay?"

Jim's face fell. He had never gotten into any particular trouble with this woman, but he supposed that the mining town he lived in was small and it wasn't hard to hear about the juvenile delinquent from the Benbow Inn. He pulled out the money from his pocket. "I've got this."

The shopkeeper nodded and bustled to a shelf at the back of the store. "Your mother has kept looking at this teapot for the last three years, James. You would make her solstice with this."

Jim looked at the price tag and nodded. It would leave him with ten notes for Kate, and he wanted to find something wonderful. "Do you have a pocket watch? A nice one, with a chain?"

"Who's the special girl?" Mrs. Linder laughed lightly, going to a small glass case which she unlocked from the loop of keys hanging from her apron. "I have this one."

Jim reached his hand out for it. It was a beautiful watch, with a very small face. It was a pinkish copper, and a single pearl tied the watch to the chain. "I'll take it. Thank you."

He held the poorly wrapped package out to Kate as they ate breakfast in the kitchen while Sarah fed the families that had stayed overnight. She took it from him and slowly peeled the paper off the watch before holding it up by the chain to the light. Kate didn't say anything for a minute, staring at the piece of jewelry dancing back and forth, hypnotizing her. "Thank you. I, um, thank you."

Jim beamed as he gulped down oatmeal. "I didn't think you were the type who wanted something impractical."

Kate looked down at the plain trousers and blouse she'd thrown hastily on to come eat. "No, not really. Though I think I might have to find something to wear to the promenade."

"You don't have a…dress?"

Kate shook her head. "Not at school. And I'd rather not go home to get it. I asked your mother the other day, actually, for sewing advice. I think I can borrow one of Smi's and make some adjustments."

Jim nodded. "She's very good at sewing."

"I do have something for you," Kate said, tentatively. "It's up in my room still. I went to town yesterday to get you something."

Jim was never one to turn down a present. "Let's go! Mom should be done in a second and then I can give her the teapot I bought." The two ran through the dining area, dodging tables and screaming children, and then stomped up the stairs to the top floor. Kate flung open the door to her room and rushed over to the dresser. "Here."

The heavy package was wrapped much more meticulously, in yesterday's newspaper. There was half a headline announcing "Procyon Peace." Jim tore through the paper to find a bronze spyglass. It was a good one, with intricate swirls etched into the sides that looked like the clouds of stardust that drifted through the Etherium. "Oh wow. This is so awesome!" He flung his arms around Kate. "Thanks, Kate."

"You can use it when we're midshipmen," she grinned.

"You bet!"

They tumbled back down, each of them with another package in hand. Jim figured that she had also bought something for his mother and he smiled. Sweet and nice and kind and prickly.

Sarah was pushing bowls of crusted oatmeal into the sink to soak in the suds. "What have you two been doing?"

"The oatmeal was delicious," Kate offered the package towards the woman who had shown her instant kindness without any explanation. Sarah's eyes widened. "Kate! You didn't have to do anything."

"I wanted to," she said, quietly, ducking her head.

Sarah delicately peeled off the newspaper to reveal a bright blue vase.

"The shopkeeper said that you'd always wanted to buy it."

Sarah laughed. "There's always something in town that looks beautiful and I never have the time to figure out what I can afford. This is beautiful, Kate. You're such a wonderful guest."

She was equally as pleased with the teapot. "Kate, you've been such a good influence on my son. Keep him on this straight and narrow path you've shown him. Now. You two can either wait until tonight, or, I can give you your gifts now."

Jim turned pleading eyes to his mother. "Please?"

\----

Kate stared at what was inside the green cardboard box. "Mrs. Hawkins. I can't…I can't accept this."

It was a cream dress with at least three petticoats and a smart collar. Kate removed it from the box, almost in a trance and held it up. The skirts tumbled down, pooling at the floor, revealing navy blue trimming at the bottom. "This is too much."

"Hush now, Kate. It's one of my old dresses from when I was younger. When we talked about sewing yesterday I fixed it up for you a little later. I won't miss it at all and you need a good dress."

Kate's eyes brimmed with tears. This woman, this mother, did not have to be so wonderful and yet she was. In a fit of passion, Kate flung herself forward and catapulted her arms around Sarah, whose surprised face peeked out at Jim over the nest of hair.

"Thank you."


	10. Chapter 9, Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking awhile! This is the fluffy second part of the 9th chapter. I'm having some issues with the next chapter, plus I'm about to finish grad school and have been working late, so chapter 10 might be a little bit. Thank you everyone who keeps reading and reviewing - it may not seem like much but getting an email that someone's reviewed or kudosed the story always makes me pull up my doc and write a few sentences on days that I hadn't planned on writing. :)

There was a party at the inn that night. Very few people had stayed, as they had moved on further into Montressor to visit their friends and families – the Benbow was often just a stopping point. But townsfolk arrived and Dr. Doppler arrived with Morph in tow.

Kate was fascinated by the pink blob. “What is this creature?”

Morph bubbled and split into a thousand particles that rearranged into a miniature version of her wearing her new dress. Mini-Kate curtsied, giggled and reformed into the floating cloud of goo.

“I dunno…he’s a morph. Silver left him with me, and since I couldn’t take him to the Academy, I left him at home. He sometimes goes with Dr. Doppler to the University… I think he misses the Etherium and all of the adventures he used to go on.”

Morph nuzzled the side of Jim’s face, cooing, before racing off to the kitchen.

“Jim, my boy,” Doppler abruptly approached the youth, fidgeting with the glasses on his snout. “How goes it at the, erm, the Academy?”  
“Good enough,” Jim grinned. “Staying out of trouble, at least I think.”

“And you,” Doppler rotated to Kate. “I’m sorry, I didn’t, um, I didn’t catch your shame…I mean your name. We’ve met before, haven’t we?”

Kate dipped her head. “Yes, sir. Um, at the Academy. In the Captain’s office? I’m Katherine Blake. You’re friends with Captain Smollett?”

The doctor began stammering. “Yes, um, yes, well, yes, of course! Yes, we’re friends. I am…let me see here… I am Doctor Delbert Doppler. Old friend of the Hawkins family. Sarah and I go way back. We met in high school, you see, back when her parents worked at the Troubadour Inn.”

“Turnbuckle Inn, Delbert,” Sarah called from the table, where she was graciously filling the wine glass of one of the few patrons that had remained behind.

“Sarah,” Delbert’s attention veered for the third time, and he went over to speak with his old friend, telling her of how the project at the college was going along. The inn was a jar of marbles, gently swirling in the hands of curious child. There was a controlled chaos, with a hum of pleasant voices, a peace of movement. More and more people filtered into the inn for the party, clicking into the swift environment. Someone began playing music on the phonograph that entwined itself into the buzz naturally.

Kate had never seen a party like this. The few that her father had hosted had been military affairs, with a dash of royalty. She had been either bundled away and ordered to stay upstairs, or, as she had gotten older, tucked into tight petticoats and breathless corsets that kept her constrained to the outskirts of the hubbub. Military men and women and their spouses talking strategy, swapping stories, gruff voices not used to the social pleasantries of a party.

Many guests were fascinated by Jim. Gone was the delinquent, and in his place remained a confident young man who had already had legends and stories built around him. He awkwardly smiled and joked his way through questions about Treasure Planet, deflecting some of the more pointed questions.

“Parties were never my strong suit either,” a clipped voice said behind Kate, who was still clutching at her skirts and observing the messes of people. Captain Amelia Smollett had somehow come into the party without much fanfare. She was out of uniform, in plain trousers and a vest and tie. “I didn’t know you had plans to visit Montressor, Blake.”

“Hawkins invited me,” Kate tried to maintain the air of professionalism with her favorite teacher. “And I didn’t really have any other plans.”

“Like I said, we are not too different.” The Captain’s eyes had lazily landed on the doctor, who was still animatedly discussing something with Sarah, who had managed to find a seat and take a break from serving. “It’s nice to have…friends that care.” She jolted, almost imperceptibly, back into her brusque manner. “I hope that you and Hawkins have been using your time well and studying for your exams.”

“Of course, Captain,” Kate nodded. Despite the hours that had been dutifully spent poring over notebooks and textbooks, she still couldn’t help feeling a little guilty for many “breaks” that she had taken with Jim Hawkins.

The Captain’s eyebrow rose. “Good. This isn’t from me, but you, Hawkins and Annick will be announced as the midshipmen at the promenade, so long as there aren’t any last minute snafus. So stay vigilant.”

Kate’s heart swelled with excitement and anxiety. Here was her chance, dangling in front of her, to escape. She could start a Navy career and escape the clutches of her father. Year long journeys, adventures, relief.

Another woman approached Amelia and they began speaking intently about politics, wherewith Kate tuned out of the conversation, glancing around the room to try and find Jim, but she needn’t have even tried, for he’d appeared at her side. It suddenly felt as though her abandoned corner was stuffed with people.

 

 

“Captain,” Jim saluted.

“Hawkins,” The felid broke her conversation shortly to nod at the boy and say, with her lips quirking upward. “At ease, spacer. I see the Academy has worked magic on your attitude.”

“I wasn’t so bad on the Legacy.”

Amelia hissed out a genuine laugh. “Blake, this upstart thought that he could man a ship himself because he could work a treasure map.”

Jim laughed too. “I was so mad at you, ma’am. Especially for making me call you ma’am.”

“That’s enough of that. I’m out of uniform and I’m not here on business, Hawkins.”

Jim turned to Kate and Amelia turned back to her acquaintance to resume the original conversation. He watched the captain surreptitiously before reaching out for Kate’s hand.

“Do you like the dress?”

“I do,” she said, adjusting the collar. Jim could tell that she wasn’t quite comfortable in the outfit, but chalked it up to having to leave her school uniforms’ trousers. He had that thought again, that nagging at the back of his skull that he was forgetting something important. Kate had successfully pulled her hair back and as his eyes caught on the little tendrils of curls escaping around her ears and neck, he thought he remembered it, but then immediately lost it. The two weren’t talking, but it was one of their comfortable silences, as they let the noises and smells and sights from the celebration wash over them.

“There’s a meteor shower tonight,” Jim said, suddenly. He still knew exactly when stars would shower through the black steely sky over Montressor. Every four and a half weeks, on the nose, and he’d counted yesterday just to make sure. He felt as though if he took Kate to the docks, he’d recapture the feeling of when his parents took him down to watch the space above their little inn. And he felt as though he might remember whatever had been bothering him if they were down there, he wasn’t sure why. “Do you want to go down to the docks? We could bring some of the bread and soup that Mom has in the kitchen.”

“Okay. I’ll go grab it,” Kate seemed relieved to slip away from the cluster of people, immediately reaching out to open the door they were standing by. She snapped the entryway shut, leaving Jim to unknowingly eavesdrop on the Captain’s conversation.

“I don’t know about this treaty, Smollett,” the woman, an impossibly tall humanid with a crooked nose and bushy eyebrows, said slowly. “Why would the Procyons agree to peace after all of this time?”

“Trade, of course,” the Captain shrugged. “Prince Edward has been placed in charge of diplomatic missions as the Emperor begins to phase out of the picture. He hasn’t many years left and he knows it. So the prince has been very passionate about establishing relations with the Procyons.”

“And the little foxes just agreed to the whole thing?”

“If you remember our time on the Armada, we did quite a bit of the instigation at the beginning of the war. They demand to remain a sovereign state, rather than joining the Empire. Edward’s washed his hands of that venture and just wants to start bridging the gap so that we can start importing. Not everyone agrees with the move, but, we’ll see where it takes us.”

“Do you agree with the move?” the woman demanded, catching Jim’s glance and shooing him off with a flick of her hair. He took a few steps forward and turned his back, but continued to listen. He wasn’t the type to be interested in politics, but the conversation was reminding him of a similar one that he’d stumbled on, hidden in the shadows of a closed inn.

“I do,” Amelia nodded, “You know I never liked the war, Potter. There’s no point to it – the Procyons will send quite literally all of their men to die at our hands before they join the Empire. I follow the orders given to me, but I don’t know how well genocide would sit on my conscience.”

“I hope you’re in the minority,” the woman sniffed. “I was with you on the Armada, but times change. I’ve lost too many spacers to those furry little bastards. They don’t play fair either.”

“I am in the minority. Most of my superior officers are…frustrated with the peace treaty, but we are in service to the Empire. I will obey the orders from the crown.”

“I highly doubt Admiral Blake is taking this sitting down.”

“He has voiced his frustrations, but it appears to be ending – the Emperor did not take the criticisms well and sent Blake off on a diplomatic mission. This doesn’t leave the room, Potter, but it was rather his just desserts.”

Potter nodded, with a bitter laugh. The two women did not appear to hold their commanding officer in the highest regard. Jim wondered, for a split second, if he should tell the Captain about the conversation he had overheard at The Silver Fish. He wasn’t sure how it fit together – Admiral Blake angry about a peace treaty, Admiral Blake conspiring with pirate ghosts, Admiral Blake and the Centurion, Admiral Blake and his concerns about a traitor working at the Academy.

Admiral Blake’s daughter came out from the kitchen, a knapsack balled in her fist and a thermos in the crook of her arm. “Are you alright, Jim?”

He flailed his arms and head for a second, clearing his thoughts. “Of course! Let’s go to the docks.”

Down at the docks, there were very few spacecrafts parked. Jim balanced easily across the rickety boards stretching over a cliff, nimbly crossing his legs and perching at the very end of the planks. Kate lifted her skirts, kicked off her clunky shoes that would only contribute to her lack of balance and moved much more cautiously to where her friend was sitting. She lowered herself onto the wood, dangling her stockinged feet over the edge. Heights weren’t usually a problem for her, and the chasm beneath them blended in with the thick darkness around them. Jim had brought a lantern with them, but snuffed it out as soon as they were sitting. He pulled a long and skinny loaf of bread from the bag and tore off a piece, stuffing it into his mouth, making a content noise from the back of his throat. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed his mother’s fresh cooking. He tore off another piece and held it in front of Kate, who playfully bit it from his fingers. They shared a laugh.

“Look,” Jim said, pointing up.

“Is it really a meteor shower?”

“Well, kind of. It’s kind of a storm of stardust and meteors and space junk that’s caught in Montressor’s orbit. But my father always told me that it was a meteor shower, and I just never really got out of that habit.”

“Do you miss him?”

Jim didn’t answer the question, merely looked up at the glittering spray that spliced through the infinite sky. He could feel the rough wood splintering into the hand that gripped the edge of the dock and the callused skin of Kate’s fingertips in his other hand. He could barely see her, just the vague outline of a smaller figure and the flash of bright eyes. He wondered if he still missed his father. The missing used to tangle through him, day after day, night after night, thrumming in his veins. But an eye-patched scoundrel had dulled that ache, at the beginning of the year. He missed John Silver and wondered where in the vast sky above Montressor that the pirate was travelling.

It was strange, loving a pirate more than your real father, Jim thought to himself, knitting his fingers into Kate’s. And it was then that he remembered. That fleeting thought he’d had at the beginning of the Solstice break, falling asleep holding Katherine Blake in his mother’s guest room. He wasn’t sure if he should say it out loud, if he should bring the feeling into the open.

“Kate?”

“Yes?” she said eagerly. Jim wondered if she knew what he was thinking, if she wanted him to say it.

“Do you…do you like Montressor?”

She deflated a little bit. “Yes. I do. I told you that I was glad you made me come with you for break. I feel very…at home here.”

Here was his chance. A way to ease into what he wanted to say. “I feel at home when I’m around you. Ever since we hid in the library when your father came to school. You…I, uh, I…Kat I think I’m…I think I love you.”

The weight that had been pressing into Jim immediately disappeared, but flooded around him as Kate didn’t answer. His cheeks turned red and he wondered if he’d messed up.

“Jim…I…that’s very sweet.”

Jim’s cheeks went redder. She didn’t feel that way. She didn’t feel as strongly. He got it – he really did. He was her first close friend, she didn’t want to ruin that, he was suddenly worried that she had only tagged along into these romantic events because he’d taken it there. He began stammering. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…I mean, you don’t have to…I mean I just…I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” Her voice was quiet.

“I shouldn’t’ve said that.”

“Why not?”

“You…if I made you feel uncomfortable…”

“No, Jim,” Kate rushed out. “No you didn’t. I just…I think I love you too. I, um, it’s very scary to say. I don’t think I’ve ever loved anyone before. So I didn’t know if I should say it.”

Both of them didn’t say anything for the rest of the meteor shower, they simply sat side by side, their bodies so close to the cavernous gap underneath the docks. Jim wondered if their hands would ever unjoin as they both clasped each other’s palms with the force of someone trying to climb a mountain. He wondered what was next, but the silver shower dazzling their gazes reminded him of what he’d been told and what he’d told Kate – they would go out and rattle the stars.


End file.
